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THE MAKING 



OF 



OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



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ii>ri 



TO MY WIFE 



PREFACE 



In undertaking to write this book it was my desire to make 
some small contribution to the history of American civiliza- 
tion. The outcome of the effort I have not ventured to 
dignify with the high title of History. But, whatever its 
shortcomings, I am hopeful that it may, at least provision- 
ally, fill a gap in the literature of American education. 

While the need of such a work was first suggested to me 
by experience with university classes, it was not specifically 
a text-book that I set out to write. It seemed desirable, 
rather, to prepare a book for two classes of readers : First, 
for such as are making or are disposed to make a serious 
study of American education in its process of development ; 
and, secondly, for such " general readers " as may seek an 
acquaintance with our educational annals, for any of the 
thousand reasons which guide general readers in their choice 
of books. A work prepared for readers of these two groups 
seemed likely to make a better text-book than one intended 
to serve as a text-book and nothing else. 

In the time at my disposal it would have been possible 
to present a more adequate " intensive " study of some smgle 
stage of our educational development. This rather extensive 
work has been undertaken instead, with deliberate purpose. 
We seem to have reached a point, in our studies of American 
educational history, where a comprehensive view is needed, 
for the betterment of our special monographs, if for no other 
reason. Probably such a point is reached, sooner or later, 
in every branch of historical research. But such a work as 
this aims to be is needed, too, for the betterment of schools. 



viii PREFACE 

Our secondary education is expanding wonderfully, and is 
making and meeting new problems ; and a knowledge of the 
past, while it cannot answer new questions, can prompt wise 
men to answer them prudently and great-heartedly. 

The setting of limits, which has been found necessary all 
along, has brought up repeatedly the question of selection 
among the materials available, and the closely related ques- 
tion of proportions among the materials used. It will doubt- 
less be found that many things have been omitted which 
were worthy in every way of a place with those which have 
been mentioned. I must crave indulgence for any mistakes 
of this kind which may appear. It would be well-nigh im- 
possible to avoid them altogether. 

One difficulty of an exceptional sort has been that of 
keeping New England, and especially Massachusetts, from 
occupying more than its share of the book. Whenever an 
illustration of some good educational movement is needed, 
j\Iassachusetts appears with a conspicuous example. At 
almost every call her hand goes up among the first. I can- 
not wonder at President Draper's remark that other states 
need " the help of Massachusetts men to tell the story." 

But this prominence, it appears, is due not only to the 
telling, but to the story as well. When one has seen how 
widely the educational ideas of New England have been 
spread abroad, west and south, all through our history, and 
liow many men of both the South and the West and the 
lands that lie between have been directly influenced by New 
England education, there appears less objection to the fre- 
quent recurrence of New England names in such a record 
as tliis. That section of our land has had indeed a notable 
educational history. I have tried to do it proportionate 
justice without obscuring the greatness of the educational 
influence which has gone forth from other centres. 

In the preparation of this volume I have received help 
from many sources, for whicli I desire to express the hearti- 



PRE FA CE ix 

est thanks. My indebtedness extends to so many that I 
refrain, though very rehictantly, from attempting individual 
acknowledgment. The Regents of the University of Cali- 
fornia granted me leave of absence with a view particularly 
to the writing of the book. I had already made a number 
of preliminary studies, extending over several years, in which 
members of my graduate seminar had given me valuable 
assistance. At twenty libraries, east and west, I have re- 
ceived numberless courtesies, which have aroused in me the 
highest admiration for the New American Librarian — both 
type and individual. Like every one else who has written 
on American schools, I have received much valuable infor- 
mation from the Bureau of Education at Washington, to- 
gether with some part of tliat finer help which for many 
years has been going forth from our Commissioner's office. 
Many other school men, and women, have helped me, some 
of them members of the universities, and many of them 
principals and teachers of our secondary schools. I am 
deeply grateful to them all. 

ELMEE ELLSWORTH BROWN. 

New York, May 31, 1902. 



\ 



/I 



COl^TENTS 







Page 


Preface 




vii 


Chapter 






I. 


Introduction 


1 


II. 


The Grammar Schools of Old England . . 


12 


III. 


Early Colonial Grammar Schools .... 


31 


IV. 


Colonial School Systems 


60 


V. 


Later Colonial Schools 


79 


VI. 


Colonial Schoolmasters, and Scholars . . 


107 


VII. 


Colonial Schooling and School Administra- 






tion 


128 


VIII. 


The English Academies 


155 


IX. 


Early American Academies 


179 


:,.''- X. 


Early State Systems of Secondary Education 


204 


: XI. 




228 


XII. 


Teachers and Teaching 


258 


XIII. 


The Movement toward Public Control . . 


::279 


XIV. 


The^-^'irst High Schools 


'297 


XV. 


Special Movements 


323 


XVI. 


Later State Systems 


347 


XVII. 


Recent Tendencies 


369 


XVIII. 


Recent Tendencies — continued 


393 


XIX. 


Notes on School Life and Studies . . . . 


416 


XX. 


The Outlook 


436 



xii CONTENTS. 

Page 

Appendix A. Statistics of Secondary Schools . . . 467 

Appendix B. Recent School Curriculums . . . . 473 

Appendix C. Bibliography 481 

I. General 481 

11. State and Local 488 

III. Individual Institutions .... 498 

IV. Biography 515 

V. Periodicals 518 

Appendix D. The First Public High Schools in the 
160 Cities now having over 25,000 

Population 519 

Index 523 



NOTE 



The following abbreviations are employed in foot-notes 
am bibliography : — 

Ajn. Ed. Hist, iov Contributions to American Educational History, 

, edited by Herbert B. Adams. 
Am.^Inst. Instr. for The Papers Read before the American Institute of 

Instruction, with the Journal of Proceedings. 
Am. Journ. Ed. for [Barnard's] The American Journal of Education. 
Circ. Inf. for Circular of Information of the United States Bureau of 

Education. 

Col. Univ. Contribs. for Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, 

Psychology, and Education. 
Ed. Rev. for Educational Review. 
N. A. Rev. for The North American Review. 
Proc. N. E. A. for The Journal of Proce dings and Addresses of the 

National Educational Association. 

Rept. Comr. Ed. for report of the [United States] Commissioner of 
Education. 



THE MAKING 

OF 

OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



CHAPTEE I 
INTRODUCTION 

Amekican institutions are an expression of American char- 
acter. The making of that character and the making of 
those institutions can hardly be thought of as distinct 
processes. They are different aspects of one process, and 
neither of them can be understood apart from tlie other. 
We are to look into this twofold development as it appears 
in the records of American education. 

The schools, in general, have occupied an interme- 
diate position between church and state, responding 
always to influences from both sides, but affected chiefly 
in earlier times by ecclesiastical considerations and in later 
times chiefly by considerations of a political character ; and 
at all times they have been open to influences of a more 
diffusive sort, economic, literary, and, broadly speakmg, 
social. Of the schools, too, the secondary schools occupy an 
intermediate position : they have been, influenced by educa- 
tional institutions and educational processes both above 
them and bekw. This fact adds much to the difficulty of 
the present inquiry, but in adding to its difficulty adds also 
to its interest. 

It is, perhaps, sufficient for our purpose to define secondary 
education roughly as education of a higher stage than that 
of the elementary school and lower than that of institutions 
authorized to give academic degrees. This definition gives 

1 



n 



2 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

no clean-cut boundaries ; but historically the limits of 
secondary education are shadowy and variable. We find 
occasionally secondary schools which take young pupils 
through the first steps of reading, writing, and arithmetic. 
On the other hand, we have seen institutions authorized to 
give degrees, and actually giving degrees, when their courses 
of instruction were hardly sufficient to fit their graduates 
for admission to the best degree-giving institutions. All 
such instances as these must be regarded as variations from 
the type and not as themselves determining the type. The 
definition proposed is inexact for another reason. The 
standards of one generation differ from those of earlier and 
later generations. There are doubtless high schools of the 
present day which offer a more generous course of instruc- 
tion than did the leading colleges of a century ago. On the 
other hand, there has been a marked tendency within the 
past century to extend the scope of elementary instruction. 
It happens that in one school the studies commonly pursued 
in secondary schools are begun two or three years earlier 
than in some neighboring institution where the pupils' 
progress in the work assigned them is equally rapid. 

In the course of its development, the American secondary 
school has got wedged in between the elementary school 
and the college, each of which has developed independently, 
without any such check or bar. So the education that we 
commonly call secondary covers a shorter period in this 
country than in other leading culture lands. The prevailing 
usage nowadays in the United States assigns eight years 
to the elementary school, followed by four years in the 
secondary school ; and that in turn followed by four years 
in the college, with the bachelor's degree at the end of the 
course : this with many occasional and local variations. 
The pupil is supposed to begin his secondary schooling at 
about the age of fourteen. In colonial times the length of 
the secondary school course was about the same as now, 
though more variable, but pupils often entered the second- 
arv school much earlier than is now customarv. It should 



INTRODUCTION 3 

be added that where the normal age for the beoinninff of 
secondary school studies is fourteen, the average age of the 
actual beginners is considerably higher. 

The method of definition of secondary education followed 
by Dr. Harris in the United States Bureau of Education is 
based upon the studies pursued. The classic languages, 
algebra, geometry, the natural sciences, the history of other 
countries than our own, and certain other subjects, are 
treated as of secondary grade ; and students who are pur- 
suing three such subjects are counted as secondary-school 
students. This is a simple and workable method of classi- 
fication, based upon the common practice of our schools. 

Back of these definitions, however, lie theoretical consider- 
ations. There is a stage in mental development, above the 
empirical stage and below the philosophical, which may be 
called the scientific. The grade of education correspond- 
ing to this intermediate stage may, quite naturally, be 
called secondary, that below it being called primary, and 
that above it, higher. The primary or elementary division 
deals mainly with things in their unessential relationships, 
their resemblances and differences, their collocation in space, 
and their orderly arrangement in temporal series. It rises, 
to be sure, to general ideas, but hardly arrives at logical 
definition of its ideas. The secondary division deals with 
ideas more clearly defined ; and it comes to an understand- 
ing of things as organized into coherent systems through 
the operation of such principles as those of mechanical 
causation and human imitation. These principles have 
already become familiar, to be sure, in the earlier stage, but 
not in their larger significance. Higher education seeks, 
finally, in the study of philosophy, to attain to a complete 
comprehension of the world, viewing it in tlie light of 
ultimate principles. 

Secondary education accordingly deals with language not 
merely Ijy way of employing it as a means of communication ; 
but looks into its grammatical structure and comes to an 
understanding of the functions and interrelations of its 



4 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

several parts. The student is set free from the distortions 
of life-long familiarity by a comparison of the forms of 
his mother tongue with those of another language or other 
languages. His practice of composition is organized through 
the regulative principles of rhetoric. His knowledge of 
literature is not only broadened by new readings in the best 
works of two or three languages, but is organized by a study 
of the elements of literary construction and also of the 
historical development of the several languages and their 
literatures. His knowledge of the facts of general history 
is likewise extended, and the comparison of the histories of 
different peoples helps him to some understanding of the 
connection of events one with another through the working 
of social influences. His knowledge of arithmetic and 
mensuration is universalized in algebra and geometry ; and 
his fragments of information concerning natural phenomena 
are run together and worked over into some semblance of a 
rounded science. It is, in other words, the business of 
secondary education to raise all subjects which it touches 
to the plane of science, by bringing all into the point of 
view of organizing principles. 

The distinction between elementary and secondary educa- 
tion seems to carry with it some such logical implications 
as have been indicated. There are objective facts of human 
development upon which a similar distinction may be based. 
Secondary education has been described as the education 
of adolescents. The comparatively brief period assigned to 
schools of this grade in America covers only an earlier stage 
of adolescence, but that is a stage in which some of the 
most decisive changes, physical and temperamental, may 
be expected to take place. Those foreign systems which 
place the pupil in a secondary school at the age of nine or 
ten, bring together children and adolescents in the same 
educational institution. 

Secondary education, regarded as the education of adoles- 
cents, is that stage in which the brain of the student, after 
twelve or fourteen years of slow development, is for the first 



INTRODUCTION 5 

time prepared to do its part in the full range of human 
activity — in which the student may be said to be for the 
first time in full possession of his proper complement of 
human capacities, instincts, and modes of thought. Begin- 
ning with this equipment, secondary education carries the 
student forward through the period in which he is making 
the mastery over his new-found self, and helps him to 
adjustment with his new-found world. 

The interpretations of the rational and the physiological 
psychologist show what was dimly apprehended in the slow 
working out of our systems of secondary education, and 
propose principles for guidance in future reforms. Another 
view, which has more or less consciously influenced our 
division of schools, is that which regards education in its 
relation to the organization of society. Primary education, 
from this standpoint, is the education needed for all ; which, 
for the sake of the general good, no citizen can be permitted 
to do without. Beyond this is the region of difference, of 
divergence, and it may be added, of very great uncertainty 
and dispute. Occasionally one hears the prophecy that 
what we call secondary education will eventually be an 
education for all. It is now the lower stage of the educa- 
tion that cannot be for all, and the stage in which differ- 
entiation according to the individual's prospective service 
to society, or according to the individual's peculiar tastes 
and capacities, or according to both of these together, finds 
its beginning. Secondary education is differentiated educa- 
tion in its earlier processes. It makes the preliminary 
survey of the student's special aptitudes and capacities, 
with a view to discovering, to himself and to those interested 
in his future, what there is in him that may be made of 
most worth to society, and so most serviceable to his own 
self-realization. 

If we were to extend our historical inquiry so as to cover 
everything that belongs theoretically to the secondary stage 
of education, we should find ourselves overlapping at one 
time the higher grades of our elementary schools and at' 



6 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

another time the lower classes of the colleges. Secondary 
education would claim, from different points of view, varying 
amounts of the adjacent territory. There is a disposition 
at present to increase its range by half, or even double it, 
by annexing to it two years or thereabouts from the course 
of the elementary school and a like amount from that of 
the college. This change, for the most part, has been made 
in theory only, though the theory has found some partial 
embodiment in actual school organization. If we were to 
carry such theoretical reconstruction back into the history 
of our schools, this account of the development of secondary 
education would take in the greater part of our college 
history and make some inroads upon the history of our 
elementary schools as well. The boundaries of the subject 
are vague enough at best, and we shall avoid further 
confusion by limiting ourselves to the schools as organ- 
ized. Only it will be remembered that this procedure 
excludes much that might fairly be brought under the term 
" secondary." 

The history of secondary education in America may be 
roughly blocked off in three divisions. The first of these, 
covering our colonial period, more or less, had for its char- 
acteristic type the old Latin grammar school. The latter 
portion of this period, from the time of the " Great Awaken- 
ing " on, showed signs of transition to that which was to 
follow. The second period may be taken as extending from 
the Kevolution to the Civil War, with strong indications 
of coming change from the days of the "Educational 
EevivaL" The characteristic secondary school of this period 
was the academy. The third period, down to our own time, 
is in an especial sense the age of the public high school. 

In the American colonies, and later in the young Amer- 
ican states, so long as their literature, science^ and art con- 
tinued to be dependent on that of Europe, two opposing 
influences may be clearly seen, shaping the higher life of 
the people. The first is the spirit of protest against European 
institutions, which many of the colonists brought with them 



INTRODUCTION 1 

from their old home ; the second is the ever-present instinct 
of imitation. The protest was as much a mark of provin- 
ciality as was the imitation. Keal American institutions 
might be expected to develop with the development of real 
American nationality. In the beginning there could be 
only such institutions as might arise under the mingled 
influence of a desire to be like the mother country and a 
desire to be different. 

It will be worth while to trace as many of the connections 
between our American schools and their European forerun- 
ners as we may be able to make out. These give us the 
lines along which institutional imitation has been at work. 
They bring us to a better understanding of our own schools, 
by showing them to us as members of a great world-family 
of schools. 

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Latin 
school, of one sort or another, was the common institution 
of secondary education in the leading countries of Europe. 
This school was the direct descendant of the monastic and 
cathedral schools of the middle ages, but had been enriched 
by the literary mfluences of the renaissance. In England, 
the type was represented by the old "grammar schools." 

It seems hardly necessary to defend a reference to the 
grammar schools of Old England as the immediate prototypes 
of our colonial grammar schools. The claim, repeatedly 
urged, that Holland and not England is the true mother 
of early American education, has related especially to 
education of an elementary grade. So far as secondary 
schools are concerned, the evidence which has been brought 
to light respecting the wide extension of grammar school 
education in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, together with the well-known fact that many of 
our leading colonists were personally acquainted, as pupils 
or teachers or otherwise, with those English schools, seems 
sufficient to cover the case.^ 

^ I have come across some explicit references to English precedents in con- 
nection with the colonial grammar schools of New England and New York. A 



8 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

In the Catholic portions of Europe, the educational insti- 
tutions of the Jesuits were at the height of their prosperity 
in the seventeenth century. In addition to colleges and 
universities, the Society of Jesus conducted by all odds the 
most thoroughly organized system of Latin schools to be 
found anywhere. Political and ecclesiastical forces pre- 
vented any open establishment of the Society in England 
and the English colonies. Accordingly we iind but few 
traces of Jesuit schools in our colonial period. Yet it can- 
not be doubted that the Jesuits were setting new standards 
for the Latin schools of continental Europe, and those stan- 
dards in all likelihood exercised some sort of indirect influ- 
ence on English and colonial institutions. It would take us 
too far afield to attempt an estimate of the extent of this 
influence at the time we have under consideration. Still 
further afield is the question how far the great Protestant 
preceptors of the sixteenth century, Melanchthon and Sturm, 
may liave influenced both the Jesuit schools and the English 
schools of the seventeenth century. These problems are well 
worthy of independent consideration. 

In opposition to the view that our New England colonists 
imitated Holland rather than England in the setting-up of 
their first school system, Mr. Eiske has suggested that the 
prompting to such educational activity came not from Hol- 
land but from Calvinism. Something like a common move- 



committee of the Boston town meeting reported, March 13, 1709-10, recom- 
mending the appointment of a board of inspectors of the Free Grammar School, 
i.e., the Latin School, " Agreeably to the Usage in England." Qnotedin Mr. 
Jenks's Historical sketch, p. 32. Some forty years earlier, the state of the Hop- 
kins Grammar School came up for discussion in the town meeting at New Haven; 
and parents who had been negligent about sending their boys to the school 
were " pressed with the custom of our predecessors and the common practice 
of the English nation to bring up their children in Learning." Quoted by 
Bacon, Hopkins Grmnmar School, p. 55. The master of the grammar 
school at New York, in the seventeen-hundred-thirties, announced that he 
would receive beginners in Latin twice a year; " Tho' once a year, as the most 
reasonable, is the Method of the best Schools in our Mother Country (whom 
we will not, sure, be ashamed of for a Pattern)." Regents' report, 1870, 
p. 678. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

ment in behalf of public education may be observed in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, throughout the Calvinis- 
tic portions of Europe — in Scotland, in the Netherlands, 
and in the Protestant portions of France and Switzerland. 
" Obviously, then, it might be held that free schools in New 
England were a natural development of Calvinism, and 
do not necessarily imply any especially close relation with 
Holland."^ Mr. Eggleston has put forth a similar view and 
has worked out some of the details which it suggests. " New 
England," he says, " was quite as likely to fetch a precedent 
from some Presbyterian country as to follow the tradition of 
England. She did not need to go farther than Scotland." ^ 

It is clear that Calvinistic ideas backed by Calvinistic 
examples were at work. While the early schools were like 
the grammar schools of England, the relation of such schools 
to the public that they served, in the Calvinistic colonies of 
New England, was something very different. Here we have 
the interworking of the protest with the imitation. For in 
Calvinism was a Protestantism endlessly protesting. This 
attitude not only committed those who maintained it to 
unremitting efforts toward improvement on the civil and 
religious conditions of Old England ; but in particular it 
made education necessary for its own continuance — and 
more and more education. The American colonists brought 
other protests in plenty with them from over seas, but none 
that had in it larger educational implications than this stand- 
ing protest of Calvinism. 

We must not suppose, however, that even yet we have 
reached any ultimate explanation. Calvinism, like every- 
thing else, had antecedents. The man who inaugurates a 
new movement in human history is one who gives expres- 
sion to what many have been thinking more or less clearly. 
He rallies about his doctrine those who, perhaps uncon- 
sciously, have been waiting for the word that he has spoken. 

1 Dutch and Quaker colonies, I., p. 33. 

2 Transit of civilization, p. 232. Compare his notes on pp. 266-268 of the 
same work. 



10 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Thus many wandering aspirations that did not know one 
another become an army and go forward keeping step. This 
is what John Calvin did, as others had done before and as 
others have done since. We might trace some of the most 
vital of his doctrines back into the middle ages, back to 
Augustine, and farther yet. And the educational aspira- 
tions which Calvinism so greatly quickened, we might find 
here and there, not wholly dormant, far back in the ages we 
call dark and barbarous. Such an inquiry would take away 
none of the true glory of Calvin and Calvinism. The re- 
former of Geneva did not claim that his doctrine was new. 
But we cannot undertake to trace its genealogy here. An- 
other arbitrary limit must be set to our search for origins. 
That is what must be done in every historical inquiry, else 
the work undertaken would become unmanageable. 

The imitations and protests of the colonists were worked 
out in a new field, with its new conditions and new prob- 
lems. Those early Americans became less conscious after a 
time of their attitude toward Europe. Of more importance 
than their agreement or disagreement with European prece- 
dents was the efficient discharge of their own immediate 
responsibilities. So, little by little, an American character 
came into being. The Eevolution greatly promoted this 
development, perhaps quite as much by drawing the colonies 
together in a new sense of responsibility at home, as by cut- 
ting them loose from outward dependence upon Europe. It 
is hardly necessary to add that provincialism of many sorts 
long survived their achievement of independence. 

No one of the movements that have entered into this slow 
development is more interesting than the making of our 
modern democracy. In this movement, too, Calvinism has 
played no little part — a part which need not be exagger- 
ated but cannot be ignored. In the later development of 
our American education, democracy has been as great a force 
as was Calvinism at an earlier day. 

In fact, the broad, general movement of American civili- 
zation is pretty well exhibited in our successive types of 



INTRODUCTION 11 

secondary school. Our Latin grammar schools were largely 
imitations of Europe, though even in them we find some 
modification made to adapt the old institution to the new 
environment. The academies, on the other hand, showed 
much less of the influence of their English prototypes, and 
early assumed a distinct American character. The high 
schools have been from the early days of their career about 
as thoroughly American as any institution we have yet 
developed. 

It is imitation with which we have to do first of all, and 
this takes us into the story of the grammar schools of Eng- 
land. To make the story short, we begin in the middle, at 
the time of the renaissance, and touch only here and there, 
on things that seem worthy to be called representative. 



CHAPTER II 
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 

In some ways the most representative of the English 
grammar schools was that founded by John Colet, Dean of 
St. Paul's, London, of which the historian Green has said : 
" The grammar schools of Edward the Sixth and of Eliza- 
beth, in a word the system of middle -class education which 
by the close of the [sixteenth] century had changed the 
very face of England, were the outcome of Colet's founda- 
tion of St. Paul's." One chief reason for this preeminence 
of St. Paul's may be found in the fact that it was the first 
school established in accordance with the ideas of the New 
Learning — it was the first to enjoy that enrichment which 
came from the literary influences of the renaissance. As to 
its early history we have, fortunately, a fair measure of 
information. 

It was near the beginning of the reign of Henry the 
Eighth that Colet entered upon the establishment of this 
school.! Ue erected buildings for the use of the school 
and its masters in St. Paul's churchyard and added an 
endowment that was liberal for the time, all from the 
private fortune left to him by his father. He placed the 
administration of this trust in the hands of the Master, 
Wardens, and Assistants of the Company of Mercers, t"he 
City of London guild to which his father had belonged. 
This was regarded as an unusual proceeding, but was not 
without parallel. The statutes drawn up for the school by 
Colet provided that " There shalbe taught in the scole Chil- 

1 It is doubtful whether the school was established in 1508, 1509, 1510, or 
1512. See Knight, Life of Onlet, pp. 102-109. 



THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 13 

dren of all nacions and countres indifferently to the Noum- 
ber of a cliij acordyng to the noumber of the Setys in the 
scole." ^ It was from the outset a day school and not a 
boarding school. The number of children to be admitted is 
thought to have been chosen with reference to the miracle 
of the fishes (John xxi. ll).^ The school was dedicated 
to the child Jesus. " Above the headmaster's chair," says 
Erasmus, " is a picture of the child Christ in the act of 
teaching ; the Father in the air above, with a scroll saying, 
'Hear ye him.' These words were introduced at my 
suggestion." ^ 

The admission of children was subject t@ the following 
rules : 

"The mayster shal reherse these artycles to them that oflfer 
theyr chyldren, on this wyse here followynge. 

"If your chylde can rede & wryte latyn & englisshe sufficiently, 
soo that he be able to rede & wryte his owne lessons, than he shal 
be admytted into the scole for a scholer. 

" If your childe after reasonable season proued be founde here 
vnapte & vnable to lernynge, than ye warned therof shal take 
hym awaye, that he occupye not here rowme in vayne. 

" If he be apte to lerne, ye shal be content that he contynue 
here tyl he haue some competent literature. 

" If he be absent vi dayes & in that mean season ye shewe not 
cause reasonable (reasonable cause is al onely sekenes) than his 
rowme to be voyde, without he be admytted agayne & paye iiij. d. 

"Also after cause shewed yf he contynue so absent tyl the weke 
of admyssyon in the nexte quarter, & than ye shewe not the contyn- 
uaunce of his sekenes, than his rowme to be voyde and he none of 
the schole, tyl he be admytted agayne & paie iiii. d. for wrytinge 
of his name. 

" Also yf he fall thryse in to absence, he shall be admytted no 
more. 

^ In this and the succeeding quotations in sixteenth century English, I 
follow the carefully edited reprints in the appendixes of Lupton's Life of 
Colat. 

2 This question is seriously discussed by Lupton, pp. 164-166. 

3 Froude, Life and letters of Erasmus, p. 98. 



14 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

" Your chylde shal on childer masse daie wayte upon the Lyssliop 
at Poules and offer there. 

" Also ye shal fynde hym waxe in wynter. 

" Also ye shal fynde hym convenient hokes to his lernynge. 

" If the offerer be content with these artycles, than let his 
chylde be admytted." ^ 

Further regulations for the school show in its founder a 
fine mingling of the devout churchman, the humanist, and 
the warm-hearted friend of children. The "Statutes" begin 
with the words : " John Colett, the sonne of henry Colett 
Dean of paules desyring nothing more thanne Educacion 
and bringing vpp chyldren in good Maners and litterature 
in the yere of our Lorde a mli fyve hundreth and twelff 
bylded a Scole in the Estende of paulis Church for cliij to 
be taught fre in the same." The purpose of the school is 
thus simply and broadly stated. The course of study is 
likewise prescribed in very broad and general terms : 

"What shalbe Taught." 

" As towchyng in this scole what shalbe taught of the Maisters 
and lernyd of the scolers it passith my wit to devyse and deter- 
myn in particuler but in generall to speke and sum what to says 
my mynde, I wolde they were taught all way in good litterature 
both laten and greke, and goode auctors suych as haue the veray 
Komayne eliquence joyned withe wisdome specially Cristyn auc- 
tours that wrote theyre wysdomo with clene and chast laten other 
in verse or in prose, for my entent is by thys scole specially to 
incresse knowlege and worshipping of god and oure lorde Crist 
Jesu and good Cristen lyff and maners in the Children And for 
that entent I will the Chyldren lerne ffirst aboue all the Cathe- 
chyzon in Englysh and after the accidence that I made or sum 
other yf eny be better to the purpose to induce chyldren more 
spedely to laten spech And thanne lustitutum Christiani homines 
which that lernyd Erasmus made at my request and the boke called 
Copia of the same Erasmus And thenne other auctours Christian 
as lactancius prudentius and proba and sedulius and Juuencus and 

1 Text as given by Lupton, Appendix B. 



THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 15 

Baptista Mantuanus and suche other as shalbe tought convenyent 
and moste to purpose vnto the true laten spech all barbary all cor- 
rupcion all laten adulterate which ignorant blynde folis brought 
into this worlde and with the same hath distayned and poysenyd 
the olde laten spech and the varay Roiuayne tong which in the 
tyme of TuUy and Salust and Virgill and Terence was vsid, whiche 
also seint Jerome and seint ambrose and seint Austin and many 
hooly doctors lernyd in theyr tymes. I say that fFylthynesse and 
all such abusyon which the later blynde worlde brought in which 
more ratheyr may be callid blotterature thenne litterature I vtterly 
abbanysh and Exclude oute of this scole and charge the Maisters 
that they teche all way that is the best and instruct the chyldren 
in greke and Redyng laten in Redyng vnto them suych auctours 
that hathe with wisdome joyned the pure chaste eloquence." 

The absence of close prescription in these directions is 
worthy of note. It is to be observed that the spirit of 
humanism is clearly present, although the good Dean still 
hesitated to put heathen authors into the hands of the 
pupils. His reference to Cicero and others of the masters 
of classical Latin may have contained a hint that he ex- 
pected a time to come when boys might be permitted to 
drink of Eoman eloquence at the fountain head. Hazlitt 
understands that the "laten adulterate" which Colet would 
" vtterly abbanysh " is tlie Latin of Juvenal and Persias. 
It would be quite in keeping with humanistic precedents, 
if these anathemas were hurled against the medireval Latin 
of the universities and earlier grammar schools. 

Greek is touched very lightly in these statutes ; but it is 
significant that it is mentioned at all. The suspicion of 
heresy still clung to that language, and it was only slowly mak- 
ing its way into the English universities. " The Conscious- 
ness of wa,nt of Greek in Colet" says Knight, " incited him 
not only to attain to some competent knowledge of it him- 
self, but also ... to be the Founder of the first Greek School 
in England"'^ 

Provision was made for a " hygh Maister," who " in doc- 

1 Op. cit., pp. 15-16. 



16 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

trin leriiyng and techyng shall direct all the scole." "A 
man hoole in body honest and vertuouse and lernyd in the 
good and clene laten litterature and also in greke yf suyche 
may be gotten a weddid man a single manne or a preste 
that hath no benefice with cure nor seruyce that may lett 
his due besynes in the Scole." There was to be also a 
" Surmaister," and in case of a vacancy in the position of 
high master, he was to have the preference for that place. 
Finally, the school was to have a " Chapelyn " who should 
" attend allonly vpon the scole." The special religious ser- 
vices prescribed for the school were not onerous. In addi- 
tion to the conduct of these services, the chaplain " shall 
teche the children the cathechyzon and Instruction of the 
articles of the faith and the X. commaundmentis in 
Inglish." 

William Lilly, well known as the author of Lilly'' s gram- 
mar, was the first master of the school. After serving in 
that capacity for ten years, he was succeeded in regular 
order by the sub-master, John Eitwyse. The securing of a 
suitable sub-master in the first instance was to Colet a 
matter of serious consideration, and became the subject of 
interesting correspondence between himself and Erasmus. 
The account which Erasmus gives of a discussion which he 
had with a Cambridge don regarding the dignity and use- 
fulness of the teacher's calling, is highly edifying. Colet 
would gladly have made Erasmus master of his school ; and 
expressed the hope that he would at least " give us a help- 
ing hand in teaching our teachers." ^ 

Seebohm finds it necessary to defend Colet against the 
charge of harshness in the discipline of this school. There 
is, at least, some evidence of a pleasing sort which goes to 
show that the founder took a loving interest in his boys. 
A Latin grammar was prepared for the use of the school. 
The question of the authorship of this grammar has vexed 
the souls of antiquarians ; but that is neither here nor there. 
All seem to agree that the " lytell proheme to the boke " 

^ Skebohm, Oxford rtformers, pp. 217-221. 



THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 17 

was written by Colet ; and this is too good to be passed un- 
noticed. It reads, in part, as follows : 

" I haue . . . made this lytel boke, not thynkynge that I coude 
say ony thynge beter than hath be sayd before, but I toke this 
besynes, hauynge grete pleasure to shews the testymony of my 
good mynde vnto the schole. In whiche lytel warke yf ony newe" 
thynges be of me, it is alonely that I haue put tese partes in a more 
clere ordre, and haue made them a lytel more easy to yonge wyttes 
than (methynketh) they were before. . . . Wherfore I praye you, 
al lytei babys, all lytel chyldren, lerne gladly this lytel treatyse, 
and commende it dylygently vnto your memoryes. Trustynge of 
this begynnynge that ye shal procede and growe to parfyt lyterature, 
and come at the last to be gret clarkes. And lyfte vp your lytel 
whyte handes for me, whiche prayeth for you to god. To whom 
be al honour and imperyal maieste and glory. Amen." 

It has seemed worth while to devote some little space to 
the beginnings of this school ; for a new movement began 
with it, though in an uncertain and hesitating way. It in- 
troduced some little measure of the new humanism into 
English grammar school education. A few years later. 
Cardinal Wolsey's school at Ipswich went a great deal 
further in this direction. In its eight classes, instruction 
was given in such Latin authors as Terence, Cicero, Sallust, 
Caesar, Vergil, Horace, and Ovid. By the seventeenth cen- 
tury, the grammar schools were schools of humanism as a 
matter of course, though much of medisevalism still clung 
to them, and much of their humanism was but little better. 

We need not enter here upon any discussion of the ques- 
tion whether Colet's school was the beginning of a new 
movement in the establishment of schools, as well as in the 
conduct of schools. That subject has been handled with 
great frankness by Mr. Arthur F. Ijcach, ^ who has com- 
bated the common belief that Henry VIII. and Edward VI. 
were great founders of grammar schools. Edivard VI. : 
Spoiler of schools, is the significant title of his first chapter. 

^ English schools at the Iteforriiation. 
2 



18 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

This work has, moreover, thrown a great deal of light on the 
wliole system of late mediaeval and early modern secondary 
education. 

Mr. Leach estimates that there were, in 1546, in the neigh- 
borhood of three Imndred grammar schools in England for 
two and one-half millions of population, or about one school 
for every eight thousand three hundred people. He finds 
evidence going to show that these schools were largely at- 
tended, their clientage being made up in the main from " the 
middle classes, whether country or town, the younger sons 
of the nobility and farmers, the lesser landholders, the pros- 
perous tradesmen." ^ His comments on the teaching of 
Latin in these schools, and more particularly on the number 
of occupations in which Latin was needed to a greater or 
less extent, are highly suggestive. Latin was not only em- 
ployed in diplomacy, in science, and in the learned profes- 
sions ; " a merchant, or the bailiff of a manor, wanted it for 
his accounts ; every town clerk or guild clerk wanted it for 
his minute book. Columbus had to study for his voyages 
in Latin ; the general had to study tactics in it. The archi- 
tect, the musician, every one who was neither a mere soldier 
nor a mere handicraftsman, wanted not a smattering of 
grammar, but a living acquaintance with the tongue, as a 
spoken as well as a written language."^ 

The specialization of schools which the middle ages had 
passed on to sixteenth and even seventeenth century Eng- 

1 Op. ciL, p. 109. 

2 Oj). cit., p. 105. Mr. Leach defends the mediaeval Latin of the schools, 
as a living language. A passage of the same general tenor may be found in 
Paulsen, Geschichte des gelehrten Unterrichts, pp. 22-24. The documents re- 
printed in Mr. Leach's Part IL give man}' examples of the curious mingling 
of Latin and English which is so often found in sixteenth centurj' papers. 
Mr. Eggleston, speaking of the seventeenth century, says, " Though the Latin 
service was no longer used. by Protestants, and the Vulgate Bible had been 
dethroned by the original text, and though the main stream of English the- 
ology was by this time flowing in the channel of the mother tongue, the notion 
that all ministers should know Latin had still some centuries of tough life in 
it." The transit of civilization, p. 225. He gives examples of the mixture 
of Latin and English in a minister's diary of the eighteenth century, p. 261. 



THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 19 

land, finds many illustrations in the documents which Mr. 
Leach presents. Reading schools, song schools, and Latin 
grammar schools are found side by side, ordinarily under 
different masters, though sometimes united under one 
management. It was no uncommon thing for the same 
boys to spend a part of their time in one of these schools 
and a part in another, vibrating between the two in the 
course of the day or week. Writing was taught sometimes 
in the reading school, sometimes in the song school, and in 
one instance, that of the town of Eotherham, separate provi- 
sion appears for a grammar school, a song school, and a 
writing school. 

At a later period, in the seventeenth century, this separate 
existence of the writing school was not unusual. One rea- 
son for such separation may be found in the fact that the 
various styles of penmanship then in vogue called for some 
considerable training and attainment of a technical sort on 
the part of the teacher. Besides, writing involved the use 
of appliances not always to be found in the primitive school- 
rooms of the time. The same appliances — ink and quills 
and some sort of desk — were needed in copying the rules 
of arithmetic and in setting down the steps in long calcula- 
tions. This is sufficient to account for the fact that arith- 
metic was ordinarily studied in the writing school. 

What the grammar schools had come to be by the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century, when American colonization 
began, may be gathered and guessed from John Brins- 
ley's The grammar schoole. This book, first published in 
1612, is thrown into the form of a dialogue between two 
schoolmasters, Spoudeus and Philoponus. Spoudeus repre- 
sents the ordinary practice of ordinary grammar schools, 
especially in country towns. Philoponus is a reformer of 
methods, to whom Spoudeus comes as to an old friend, for 
encouragement and counsel. There is an air of candor and 
simplicity about the whole which wins the reader's confi- 
dence ; and incidental corroboration found elsewhere makes 
it appear reasonable to accept the representations of Spou- 



20 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

deus as fairly describing the schools of the time. The im- 
provements proposed by Philoponus, too, give many hints 
of the state of things which he would improve. 

Boys were commonly admitted to these grammar schools 
at the age of seven or eight. Theoretically the schools were 
for those who could already read the New Testament, if they 
had not even made a beginning in the Latin accidence. In 
practice, however, nearly half of the time of the teacher was 
devoted to beginners, who must be taught their ABC; and 
these often were unable to read at all well when they had 
been iu the school for two or three years or even more. 
The primer, the Psalms in metre, and the Testament, is the 
curriculum proposed by Philoponus for these beginners. 
After that he would have them enter upon the accidence. 

When Latin was once begun, English was sadly neglected. 
" I doe not know any schoole," says Spoudeus, " wherein 
there is regard had hereof to any purpose." The study of 
numbers was even more generally overlooked. It was no 
uncommon thing to find scholars almost ready for the 
university who were not able to make out the numbers of 
pages, chapters, or other divisions in the books they were 
reading. There were few good penmen in the grammar 
schools, except such as had been taught by wandering scrive- 
ners, " shifters," as Philoponus calls them ; and these men did 
much harm to the cause of sound learning. 

The accepted curriculum in Latin, to which the regular 
grammar scholar devoted nearly all of his time, was : Acci- 
dence, grammar, construing. With construing, there was 
parsing and the making of Latin ; and this making of Latin 
passed through several stages, as epistles, themes, declama- 
tions (disputations), and verse. The Latin texts which 
Philoponus has his pupils construe are given in order, 
as follows : Pucriles confahulatiuncidae} Scntcntiae pueriles, 
Cato, Corderius (dialogues), Esop's fables ; " Tullies Epistles 
gathered by Sturmius: Tullies Oflices, with the books ad- 

1 This seems to have been a collection of simple dialogues prep.ired by 
Bi'insley himself. 



THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 21 

joyned to them ; de Amicitia, Senectute, Paradoxes : Ouid 
de Tristibus, Quids Metamorphosis, Virgil." Other texts 
spoken of as in use in the schools are : " Tullies Sentences, 
Aphthonius, Drax his phrases, Flores foetarum^ Tully de 
Natura deorum, and Terentius Christianus ; " and to these 
are added, for more advanced study, Horace, Persius, and 
Juvenal. 

English was employed in the accidence. The text-book 
was painfully committed to memory, without reference to 
the meaning of things. Meanings were to be gathered after- 
wards, by practice. The grammar consisted of rules of 
orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody, expressed in 
Latin ; and these were "learned without book," i. e., by heart, 
as we should say. There was more or less of construing of 
these rules, which would give the learner some little chance 
of getting at their meaning. But much of the process must 
have been purely Chinese. A later edition of Lilly's gram- 
mar had been made the official text-book of the realm, so 
boys in all schools learned the same lines. The rules in 
this grammar were commonly referred to by the first two or 
three words, like a papal bull. As in praesenti, or Propria 
quae marihus} carried its meaning perfectly to any one 
trained in these schools. 

Making Latin was a great bugbear to both masters and 
scholars. One theme a week was required in good schools. 
Boys were punished so much for poor work on these themes 
that, according to Spoudeus, they " would rather desire to 
goe to any base trade or drudgery than to be schollers." 

The boys were required to use only Latin in all of their 
intercourse while at school, and devices of all sorts were 
employed to keep them from uttering a word of English. 
Conversation books, as we have seen, occupied a prominent 
place in the earlier stages of the school curriculum — mere 
practical hand-books, such as travellers now use in picking 
up the more necessary phrases of modern French or German. 

1 As ill praesenti perfectum format in avi. Propria quae maribus tribuun- 
tur, mascula dicas. 



22 



THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



The Colloquies of Corderius is an example. A seventeenth 
century edition of this work, probably edited by the eminent 
scholar, Charles Hoole, is a short and thick volume of over 
four hundred pages. It contains a wide range of Latin con- 
versation, together with a parallel English translation. Here 
is a specimen, from the beginning of the third book : 



"Col. 1. One of the Scholars 
and the Master 

D. God save you, Master. 
P. God save you through Jesus 
Christ. 

Are they all got up? 

D. All except the little oues. 

P, Is any one sick 1 

D. None, thanks be to God. 



Col. 1. Unus ex Discipulis, 
& Praeceptor 

Salve, Praeceptor. 

Salve per Jesum Christum. 

An surrexerunt omnes ? 

Omnes praeter parvulos. 
Numquis aegrotat 1 
Nemo, gratia Deo." 



After a time, the dialogue drops into confidential gossip, 
very similar to our modern style of The-nephew-of-my-uncle- 
has-bought-the-black-waistcoat-of-the-French-tailor. The fol- 
lowing is an example : 



"Col. 7. Clericus, 
The Master. 

C. Master, may not I and my 
uncle's son go home 1 

M. To what end ? 

C. To my sisters daughters 
wedding. 

M. When is she to be married ? 

C. To-morrow. 

M. Why will you go so quickly? 

C. To CHANGE OUR CLOATHS. 



Col. 7. Clericus, 
M agister. 

Licetne, Magister, ut ego & 

patru^lis eamus domum ? 
Quid eo ? 
Ad nuptias consobrinae. 

Quaudo est nuptiira ? 
Criistiuo die. 
Cur tarn cito vultis ire? 
Ui mutemus vestimenta.y 



The master, in these colloquies, is kind and paternal 
beyond measure, and the pupil is an impossible little prig. 
The heart of every real schoolboy must have rebelled 
against such barefaced imposture. But the dialogues let us 



' THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 23 

into many an inside view of the daily employments of the 
school. So far, however, as banishing the mother tongue 
from the schools was concerned, Confahidatiuncuim, Collo- 
quia, and Sententiae jpueriles, and all of the rewards and 
punishments added thereto, generally failed, as Philoponus 
sorrowfully admits. 

Greek is touched in Brinsley's book much more lightly 
than Latin. It is evident that even yet it had not settled 
down into a well-established course. The Greek grammar 
was first studied, and after that the New Testament. Parts 
of Isocrates, Xenophon, Plato, and Demosthenes are thought 
most fit for scholars in the grammar schools, after the New 
Testament ; but it is agreed that boys will be admitted into 
the universities if they are well entered upon the Greek 
Testament. There was some attention devoted to Greek 
composition, but Philoponus would have little time wasted 
on such exercises, the ability to write Latin being much 
oftener called into use. 

The two friends agree that too little attention was 
devoted in the schools to instruction in religion. Where 
properly looked after, this consisted of the teaching of the 
catechism, reports of sermons heard on Sundays, and the 
repetition of the Bible history.^ Philoponus would have 
occasional lessons in civility given in the time commonly 
devoted to the history. Picadings in the Bible are said to 
have been employed in some of the best schools to reinforce 
instruction in Latin and Greek, passages read in the one 
language being translated into the other. 

So far the studies of the schools. It is admitted that 
their discipline is often severe and ill-regulated. Philoponus 
is not ready to banish the rod, but he counsels mildness. 
School hours are long, and holidays very few, but greater 
leniency in these particulars is not regarded with favor. 

Taken all together, the view of the schools which the book 
presents is indeed depressing. No wonder that Spoudeus 

1 This is in accordance with the prescriptions of the Englisli Canons of 
1603, eanou 79. 



24 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

remarks at the beginning of the interview : " For my time, I 
haue spent it in a fruitlesse, wearisom, and an vnthankfull 
office .... I heare of some others . . . whom God blesseth 
greatly in this calling ; though such be verie rare, some one 
or two spoken of almost in a whole countrey." 

It is not to our purpose to devote much attention to the 
improvements which Philoponus proposes. They are for 
the most part genuine improvements ; and many of them 
might be found realized in the better teaching of the past > 
century, or even in the more common practice of the schools. 
Some, having become established, have in their turn been 
painfully displaced by later reforms. ^ But the call which 
Philoponus utters for more attention to the meaning of 
things — more dependence upon the understanding — sounds 
out in unison with the voices of educational reform through 
all the ages. 

Brinsley devotes his book and his endeavors as a school- 
master to the service of the Church and the Commonwealth. 
The Pteverend Doctor Joseph Hall, in " A commendatory 
Preface," declares that " Our Grandfathers were so long 
vnder the ferule, till their beards were growne as long as 
their pens : this age hath descried a neerer way." And 
Doctor Hall rejoices in these improvements particularly in 
view of the alarming progress made by the schools of the 
Jesuits. It is necessary, in his view, that some way should 
be found by which English masters may outstrip the edu- 
cational achievements of the Society of Jesus ; and this 
book offers " not feete, but wings " for that purpose. Brins- 
ley himself gives an occasional hint of his desire to make 
of the grammar schools a national bulwark against the dan- 
ger of Roman Catholic aggression. He would have his 
scholars begin with the New Testament as their first Greek 

1 Brinsley warmlj^ recommended the use of English translations of the 
classics studied, and in this he was followed by other seventeenth century 
reformers. Some of our earliest school " ponies " were prepared by these practi- 
cal-minded schoolmasters. Was this all wrong ? Might it not be well to use 
translations in good English more freely than is commonly approved in 
present-day teaching ? 



THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 25 

text, not only " for that eternall life is onely iu these bookes, 
being truly vnderstood and beleeued," but also because of 
slanders circulated against our English translations, which 
"haue beene a principall meanes to turne many thousand 
soules, after Satan and Antichrist." 

When all necessary deductions have been made, it still 
cannot be doubted that John Brinsley exercised a whole- 
some influence on the school practice of the time through 
this and the several other educational works which he pub- 
lished. He proposed to render instruction interesting to 
both master and scholars. He would make of the school a 
true ludus literarius, instead of the " carnificina or pistrinum 
literarmm'^ which the boys too often had reason for think- 
ing it to be. He believed that, " all schollers of any toward- 
liness and diligence may be made absolute Grammarians, 
and every way fit for the Universitie, by fifteene yeeres of 
age." He acknowledged freely his indebtedness to " Our 
learnedest Schoolemaster M. Askam." For himself he says : 
" I . . . onely desire to learn of all the learned, to helpe the 
vnlearned." There is a tone of kindliness running through 
the book, and every evidence of that lovableness always 
found in those who love to teach. The wilderness of Eng- 
lish grammar schools of the seventeenth century could not 
have been all a waste when a few such spirits were to be 
found in it. 

In 1678, Christopher Wase, an Oxford man, published his 
little book on Free schools in England. It was intended to 
answer the question, then frequently raised, " whether the 
English Free Grammar Schools be overproportioned to the 
occasions of the Church and State of England." Wase 
speaks as if recalling a well-known fact when he says that 
"there are of late Grammar Schools founded and endowed 
in almost every Market Town of England," in which the 
children of the town are to receive instruction free of 
charge. But he declares, on the other hand, that some 
counties are not well supplied with free schools in actual 
operation ; that at the best, one may see " the maintenance 



26 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

but of very few in a County, such as may vindicate Masters 
from being necessitous and contemptible." Many of the 
free grammar schools, instead of bringing up the youth in 
learning, " are onely Nurseries of Piety and Letters, as 
preparatory to Traded 

He proceeds to show that these schools are not turning 
out more scholars than England needs. His argument is 
based on the assumption that a Latin training is needed for 
the three learned professions, and for many subsidiary call- 
ings. Some little attempt is made to give the question a 
definite numerical treatment, but it is evident that the 
statistical information which such treatment would call for 
was not at hand. 

The objection that a preacher of the gospel needs not 
learning but rather the illumination of the spirit, was already 
abroad, and Wase undertook to answer it. " Morality," so 
the argument runs, " the Law written in our hearts needed 
not to have bin learn'' cl out of Books. . . But the Doctrine 
of Faith being an engrafted word, not from nature, but by 
culture, needed to be reveled; to be couch 'd in Holy Writt.'^ 
In the case of the legal profession, it was commonly agreed 
that a knowledge of Latin was necessary, but a tendency 
had set in to dispense prospective lawyers from the study 
of poetry and of Greek. A vigorous protest is entered 
against this change, much of the argument being drawn 
from Cicero's oration in behalf of the poet, Archias. 

But Christopher Wase goes on in a strain that reminds 
one of the nineteenth rather than the seventeenth century. 
It is said that the lower classes should be trained only for 
their calling in life ; and that particularly in matters politi- 
cal and ecclesiastical they should simply learn to obey those 
set over them. He replies that, " it may be seasonable to 
interpose, whether there be not a Generall as well as Parti- 
cular calling. All . . . ly under some Duty towards God 
and Man. . . . That any nation can be too universally 
learn'd in the law of well-living, would be . . . hard to be con- 
ceived." " It is agreed on all parts, that Education is ahso- 



THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 27 

lutely due to man, either as in his imperfect or corrupt 
estate." Aud again, "Kings of England have graffed upon 
these Policies, this conscience; that their Subjects pay them 
a rational obedience : that they ground their Faith upon p)rin- 
ciples of sound knoioledge." 

Taking such high ground with regard to the place and 
function of education, Wase urges that those who would 
make gifts and bequests for the establishment of new 
grammar schools be not discouraged, but given all possible 
furtherance in so praiseworthy an enterprise. He would 
have schoolmasters better paid ; would have the patronage 
of country schools annexed to the several colleges of the 
universities ; would have these schools made so good that 
the gentry would find it advantageous to send their sons 
thither, to be taught along with the sons of the common 
people. The practice of "our modern Januists," who "seem 
in great measure to leave Grammar atid build lopoii Diction- 
ary," does not find favor in his eyes. The writings of Co- 
menius must have had some influence in England to have 
called out this protest.^ Wase prefers the example of those 
English " Master builders," Ascham, Hoole, and William 
Walker. 

He devotes a brief passage to the question of instruction 
in writing and numeration. The proper instruments for 
these studies should be provided in the grammar schools, 
even if a separate room is not devoted to such use. Speak- 
ing apparently of penmanship aud arithmetic both together 
he adds : " None, I think, in these days are of opinion that 
the skill and practice of this Art can be too universally pro- 
pagated : some may with reason fear it is by many perverted 
from its noblest end, when cmp)loid to this discouragement of 
other more excellent Arts and Sciences or restrain' d in a 
manner wholly to the service of secular advantage." ^ 

The large significance as well as the relative scantiness 

1 Compare the rather slighting comment of Milton in the Tractate cm Edu- 
cation. 

'^ Op. cit., pp. 3-11, 45-59, 66-82, 87-88, 108. 



28 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

of Latin-school education in England in the later seven- 
teenth century is well illustrated in this little academic dis- 
sertation. Thirty years before Wase wrote, a fresh and 
vigorous movement in secondary education was already in 
full progress in the American colonies ; and not long after 
his book appeared, it took, as it were, a fresh start. We are 
now ready to enter upon some examination of the records of 
this movement. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

Tor several generations the standard biography of Colet was 

Knight, Samuel, D.D. Tlie life of Dr. John Colet, Dean of S. Paul's in 
the reigns of K. Henry YII. and Henry VIII. and founder of S. 
Paul's school : with an appendix containing some account of the mas- 
ters and more eminent scholars of that foundation ; and several original 
papers relating to the said life. London, 1724. 
Somewhat extended extracts from this work may be found in Barnard's 

Am. Journ. Ed., xvi. A more modern account is that of 

LuPTON, J. H. A life of John Colet, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's, and 
founder of St. Paul's School, with an appendix of some of his English 
writings. London : George Bell and Sons, 1887- 
Chapter 9 relates to the founding of the school. Additional information 
of much interest may be found in 

Seebohm, Frederic. The Oxford reformers, John Colet, Erasmus, and 
Thomas More. Being a history of their fellow-work. Loudon and 
New York : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1887. 
Chapter 6 tells of the founding of St. Paul's school. And in 

Froude, J. A. Life and letters of Erasmus. Lectures delivered at 
Oxford, 1893-4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894. 

Other matter relating to St. Paul's School may be found in 

Hazlitt, W. Carew. Schools, school-books, and schoolmasters, a con- 
tribution to the history of educational development in Great Britain. 
London : J. W. Jarvis & Son, 1888. 
Especially chapter 7. 

Staunton, Howard. The great schools of England : an account of the 
foundation, endowments, and discipline of the chief seminaries of learn- 
ing in England ; including Eton, Winchester, Westminster, St. Paul's, 



THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF OLD ENGLAND 29 

Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors', Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, etc. 
etc. London, 1865. 
Also in that interesting old volume 

[AcKEBMANN, R.] The history of the colleges of Winchester, Eton, and 
Westminster ; with the Charterhouse, the schools of St. Paul's, Mer- 
chant Taylors, Harrow, and Rugby, and the free-school of Christ's 
Hospital. London, 1816. 
The lives of Colet present, in appendixes, reprints of valuable documents 

relating to the history of St. Paul's School. Such matter may be found 

also, less carefully edited, in the works of Hazlitt and Staunton referred to 

above. 

Leach, Aiithuu P. English schools at the Reformation, 1546-8. West- 
minster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1896. Pp. 316. 

The value of this work is greatly enhanced by the reprint of documents 
relating to proceedings under the Chantries Acts of Henry VIII. and 
Edward VI., pp. 123-320. A later work by the same author, Early 
Yorkshire schools, the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 1898 (pp. 74+252), 
makes important additions to this study. 

I cannot omit to mention one work which is of great value because of the 
light which it throws on the earlier educational ideals of the renaissance : 

Woodward, William Harrison. Vittorino da Peltre and other human- 
ist educators : essays and versions. An introduction to the history 
of classical education. Cambridge : University Press, 1897- Pp. 
12+256. 
Chapter 2, book 5, of Green's History of the English people gives a very 
helpful account of the revival of learning in England. 

Of very great value in connection with this and the following chapter is — 

Eggleston, Edward. The transit of civilization from England to Amer- 
ica in the seventeenth century. New York : D. Appleton & Co., 1901. 
Pp. 9+344. 
Especially chapter the fifth, on The tradition of education. 
Mr. Eggleston has done a good service in calling attention anew to the 
writings of John Brinsley. I have made use of the copies of the Ludiis 
literarius found in the library of Columbia University (first edition) and 
in the library of the Boston Athenseum (fifth edition). The title page is 
nearly identical in the two. That of the first edition reads as follows : 

Ludus literarius : or, the Grammar Schoole ; shewing how to pro- 
ceede from the first entrance into learning, to the highest perfection 
required in the Grammar Schooles, with ease, certainty and delight 
both to Masters and Schollars ; onely according to our common Gram- 
mar, and ordinary Classicall Authours : Begvn to be sovght ovt at the 



30 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

desire of some worthy fauourers of learning, by searching the experi- 
ments of sundry most profitable Schoolemasters and other learned, and 
confirmed by trjall : Intended for the helping of the younger sort of 
Teachers, and of all Schollars, with all other desirous of learning ; for 
the perpetuall benefit of Church and Common-wealth. It offereth it^ 
selfe to all to whom it may doe good, or of whom it may receiue good to 
bring it towards perfection. London : Printed for Thomas Man, 1612. 
[Numbered pages, 330.] 

The copy at Columbia University is bo-und in one volume with Beins- 
ley's The 'pos'mri of the parts, which bears the same date. Tliis little work, 
of 63 numbered leaves, is an " accidence " or Latin primer arranged in 
questions and answers. 

The copy of the Colloquies of Corderius which I have used is in the 
library of Columbia University. The title page and some of the later 
leaves are missing. A note in manuscript on the inside of the cover 
represents it as the first edition of the work in the form put forth (1653) 
by Charles Hoole. 

Tliere is a copy of Christopher Wase's book in the Library of Cou- 
gress. It is published anonymously, and bears the title : 

Considerations concerning free-schools as settled in England. 
Printed at the Theater in Oxford, and are to be had there. And in 
Loudon at Mr. Simon Millers at the signe of the Star near the West 
end of S. Paul's Church. Anno 1678. Pp. [8] + 112. 



CHAPTEE III 
EAKLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 

The fathers of our early colonies had, many of them, been 
educated' in the Latin schools of Old England. William 
Penn received his early schooling at the Chigwell Free 
Grammar School. Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport 
were schoolmates in the Coventry Free Grammar School, 
whence Davenport went at the age of fourteen to Oxford. 
Edward Hopkins had been a scholar in the Ptoyal Free 
Grammar School in Shrewsbury. Koger Williams — what 
a wilful and lovable schoolboy he must have been ! — went 
to Pembroke College, Cambridge, from the Charter House. 

The early secondary schools Qf_lhe colonies, while sub- 
stantially of one type, took different names. They were 
.canecLLatin grammar schools; or for short, grammar schools, 
like their English prototypes. Less frequently the name 
was shortened to Latin school. In some places they were 
called public schools, as are the great classical schools of 
England at the present time. The name free school, also 
in use in the mother country, was frequently employed. 

There has been considerable discussion of the origin and 
meaning of this last-mentioned designation. The expla- 
' nation which would connect it with the old Greek notion of 
liberal education, is without good historical foundation; 
though it is not unlikely that the title was sometimes 
employed by men of classical spirit with conscious reference 
to the ancient usage. Professor P)asil Sellers has shown 
that it was commonly used merely " as a compound name 
indicating a certain grade of instruction, such as we would 



32 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

call 'liberal^j without assigning to the adjective any descrip- 
tive force whatever." 

The latest word in this discussion and perhaps the last, 
has been spoken by Mr. Leach. After his extended exami- 
nation of the documents relating to schools affected by the 
Chantries Acts of Henry VIII. and Edward YL, he sets 
aside the various other interpretations which have been 
offered, and sums up his own conclusions in the following 
words : " It is impossible, if the phrase is regarded in its 
historical development . . . that it could have meant any- 
thing but what it was popula rly s iipposed to mean — free 
from payment of tuition fees. \Entrance fees, and all sorts 
of extras and luxuries, such as fires, light, candles, stationery, 
cleaning, whipping, might have to be paid for ; but a free 
School meant undoubtedly a School in which, because of 
endowment, all, or some of the scholars, the poor or the 
inhabitants of the place, or a certain number, were freed 
|rom fees for teaching." ^ 

This is a clear and carefully guarded statement, and 
seems to be borne out by the documentary evidence pre- 
sented. It should be remembered, however, that in our 
early colonial period, a " free school " was generally one in 
which school fees of one sort or another were regularly paid 
by all but the poorest pupils ; and was, moreover, a school 
of secondary grade, that is, a Latin grammar school. 

A melancholy interest -attaches to the first colonial 
grammar school of which we have any record. This school 
was decreed by the Virginia Company of London in 1G21, 
and was to be located at Charles City, on the James Eiver. 
The colony had before this time set hopefully about the 

^ English schools at the Rcformnfion, pp. 110-114. Cf. Steiner, Educa^ 
tion in Maryland, p. 20, foot-note; Barnard's Am. Journ. Ed., I., pp. 298- 
299, foot-notes; Adams, College of William and Mary, p. 13. 

Christopher Wase refers to the common complaint in his day that thevp 
were no free schools in EiiE;land, since "tutorage" was "no where remitted." 
The reason which he linds for this state of affairs is that endowments, liowever 
ample at the time of their settlement, have in course of time become unequal 
to the decent support of schoolmasters. Free schools in England, p. 60. 



EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 33 

establishment of a college. Liberal endowment was pro- 
vided ; but it was proposed that the erection of buildings 
be postponed, and that in the mean time a free school should 
be opened, which should prepare students for entrance upon 
the college studies. A special fund was provided for that 
purpose. 

There is evidence of the interest then felt in Virginia, 
in the stories of the raising of this fund. One of these 
should be repeated here. Th e Eev. Pa trick Cope] and, re- 
turning to England on the ship Royall James, after a 
residence of some years in India, persuaded _his fellow 
travellers to contribute the sum of £70 " towardes some 
good worke to be beguun in Virginia " — away on the other 
side of the globe. " An unknowne person " added £30 to 
this sum. The money was accepted by the Company with 
every evidence of interest in the project. " It beinge, there- 
fore, nowe taken into consideracon whither a Church or a 
Schoole was most necessarie, and might nearest agree to the 
intencons of the Donors : . . . they . . . conceaued it most 
fitt to resolue for the erectinge of a publique free schoole 
... as that whereof both Church and Comon wealth take 
their originall foundacon and happie estate, this being also 
like to proue a work most acceptable unto the Planters, 
through want whereof they haue bin hitherto constrained 
to their great costs to send their Children from thence 
hither to be taught." 

In honor of its first benefactors, the proposed institution 
was named the " East Indy School." " It was also thought 
fitt that this, as a Collegiate or free school, should have 
dependance upon the Colledge in Virginia wch should be 
made capable to receaue Schollers from the schoole into 
such Schollershipps and fellowshipps of said Colledge shall 
be endowed withall for the aduancement of schollers as they 
arise by degrees and deserts in learninge." The Company 
seems to have set apart one thousand acres of land for the 
endowment of the school, and to have provided an overseer 
and five other persons for the management of this estate. 

3 



34 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

It was proposed that " such as send their children to this 
schoole should mue some benevolence unto the schoolm', 
for the better encrease of his mayntenance ; " and "that the 
planters there be stirred up to put their helping hands 
towards the speedy buildinge of the said schoole," with the 
assurance that "those that exceed others in their bounty 
and Assistance hereunto shal be priuileged with the pre- 
ferment of their Children to the said schoole before others 
that shall be found less worthie." Immediate steps were 
taken to send out a schoolmaster. But these hopeful be- 
ginnings were interrupted by the terrible Indian massacre 
of 1622, in which more than three hundred of the colonists 
lost their lives, followed by the fall of the Virginia Com- 
pany, in 1624. We have no certain evidence that the school 
was ever opened.^ 

The attempt made a little later to establish a free school 
in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was more fortunate ; and 
the resulting institution still lives and thrives, after more 
than a quarter millennium of honorable service. The Boston 
Latin School is a child of the town meeting. It was " born 
at sunrise," to use the words of Phillips Brooks, " dating its 
life from the days when an order of things, which is to exist 
for a long time in the world, is in the freshness of its youth." ^ 
The bare record which has come down to us does not tell 
much of the relation of the school to that order of things ; 
but this will appear in some measure as we get farther on. 

On the " 13th of the 2d moneth 1635 " — the twenty-third 
of April, by our reckoning, five years after the settlement of 

^ The documentary history of this scliool is found in Nkill, History of the 
Virginia Compariy of Lo7ido7i, \fp. 251-257. The invents recorded took place 
during the second year of the Earl of Southampton's directorship, in the 
period in which an enlightened statesmanship was dominant in the affairs of the 
Virginia Company. Patrick Copeland seems to have been a man always 
engaged in "some good worke." He was at one time appointed Rector of 
the proposed college in Virginia. At a later time he was interested in a 
scheme for the establishment of a college in the Bermuda Islands, which 
should serve, at least in part, the needs of Virginia. It will be remembered 
that long after this Bishop Berkeley was interested in a siuiilar scheme. 

- The oldest school in America, p. 15. 



EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 35 

Boston — the citizens of that town voted, " that our brother 
Philemon Pormont, shalbe intreated to become scholemaster, 
for the teaching and nourtering of children with us." ^ This 
brother is a shadowy figure in the dim annals of those times. 
There are several variant spellings of his name. It is not 
known to a certainty that he ever became the scholemaster 
of the town, as he was intreated, but it is probable that he 
opened the proposed school, and that he taught Latin in it 
from the start. Two or three years after the vote recorded 
above, he was concerned in the controversy stirred up by 
Mrs. Hutchinson ; and he was one of the party of Mrs. Hut- 
chinson's adherents who went out into the wilds of New 
Hampshire, and founded the town of Exeter. Not many 
years later he was back in Boston. 

The first indication that appears of any provision for the 
support of this school is found in the record of a " general 
meeting of the richer inhabitants," held August 12, 1636. 
At this meeting, a subscription was made " towards the 
maintenance of a free school master for the youth with us, 
Mr. Daniel Maud being now also chosen thereunto." The 
governor, Sir Harry Vane, contributed ten pounds, and the 
deputy governor, John Winthrop, an equal amount. There 
are forty-three other names on the list, and the sum total 
comes up to £40 6s.^ It is not known whether Mr. Maud 
was made assistant or successor to Philemon Pormont ; prob- 
ably the latter. He was a graduate of Emmanuel College, 
Cambridge. A garden plot was assigned to him the follow- 
ing year. The names of other early schoolmasters have 

^ Second report of the record commissioners of the City of Boston, pp. 4-5. 
This meeting was highly characteristic of the old town S3'stem. In addition 
to the vote relating to the school, three other items of business were disposed 
of: The pastor, Mr. John Wilson, was given liberty to improve a certain tract 
of land ; a rate of five shillings a head was fixed for the keeping of dry cattle 
until the following November; and it was generally agreed, " that our brother 
Richard Fairbanke, shalbe intreated to take the Cowes to keeping that are 
upon the necke ; and in case he cannot then our brother, Thomas Wardall, to 
be intreated thereunto." 

2 Second report of the record commissioners, p. 160, foot-note. 



/ 



36 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

been preserved, but they are little more than names down 
to the year 1670. Then begins the long and glorious reign 
of Ezekiel Cheever, and with it the real history of the school. 

It has been claimed that the Eev. John Cotton, who came 
to New England in 1633, was the determining factor in the 
establishment of this school, and the claim would seem to 
have a pretty good foundation. Cotton had already made a 
great reputation as a preacher in the Boston of Old England, 
and there he had been closely identified with the manage- 
ment of the free grammar school established by Queen Mary 
in 1554. Immediately on his arrival in this country he 
took a leading part in the affairs of the Massachusetts Bay 
Colony. His name appears on the subscription list for the 
support of a schoolmaster, though with only a dash after it. 
In- -Ms- -will, he provided that, under certain contingencies, 
one-half of Ids estate should revert to Harvard College and 
the other half be devoted to the support of the free school 
in Boston (Massachusetts).^ 

Public provision was made at an early day for the support 
of the school. The General Court of Massachusetts had 
granted to the town of Boston several of the islands in 
Boston harbor. In 1641 the town set apart one of these, 
Deer Island, for the maintenance of the free school. In 1649, 
two others, Long and Spectacle Islands, were set apart for 
the same purpose. There are numerous entries in tlie town 
records referring to the rent of these islands. For a single 
example, in 1644, Deer Island was rented for three years at 
£7 a year, for the benefit of the school.^ Another public 
appropriation for the same object was made in 1649, when 
five hundred acres of land belonging to the town and situ- 
ated at Braintree w^ere disposed of by a perpetual lease, at a 
rental of forty shillings a year '" for the school's use." ^ 

1 The argument, presented by the Rev. Robert C. Waterstou to the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society in February, 1873, is reproduced in full by Mr. 
Jenks in his Historical sketch. Cf. Proc. Mass. Historical Society, 1871-1 S73, 
pp. 38G-391. 

2 Second report of the record commissioners, p. 82. 
8 Id., p. 95. 



EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 37 

In addition to all this, we find occasional reference to be- 
quests for the benefit of the school, from which it realized 
some small increase of its resources. It is not clear that 
tuition fees were charged in the earlier days ; but in 1679 a 
recommendation was passed that such patrons of the school 
as were able to pay something should make contributions for 
'^^encouragement of the master. At the same time it was 
expressly provided that Indian children should be taught 
gratis.^ 

We find this institution marked, from these early begin- 
nings, by two clear characteristics : It was a town school, 
and it prepared boys for admission to Harvard College. 
These facts have been pointed out with pride by eminent 
Latin School boys. " It may be merely a fancy of mine," 
says Edward Everett Hale, "that the destinies of Boston 
have been largely affected by the establishment here in 1635 
of what they called a * Grammar School,' and by the loyalty 
and pride by which that School has always been maintained. 
But I think this fancy will bear examination." ^ "It repre- 
sented," said Phillips Brooks in his anniversary address, " the 
fundamental idea of the town undertaking the education of 
her children." ^ And again : " It was the classic culture in 
those earliest days that bound the Latin School and Harvard 
College close together. The college is young beside our ven- 
erable school. It did not come to birth till we were four 
years old. But when the college had been founded, it and 
the school became, and ever since have made, one system of 
continuous education." ^ 

Other Massachusetts towns, as if moved by a common 
impulse, soon took action similar to that of Boston. Charles- 
town, in June, 1636, agreed with Mr. William Witherell 
" to keep a school for a twelvemonth." He was to receive 
£40 for the year. Lovell's Island was granted to the town 

^ Jenks, op. cit., p. 6. 

2 Article on The higher life of Boston, in The Outlool', liii., no, 13, March 
28, 1896. 

* Tlie oldest school in America, p. 25. i 

* Id., p .^8. 



38 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

by the General Court, and was leased for the benefit of 
the school. In 1647, the rental of the island was five 
pounds, and fifteen pounds additional was raised by a town 
rate ; " also, the town's part of the Mistic weir for the School 
forever." In 1659, the General Court granted the town one 
thousand acres of land for the benefit of the grammar school.^ 
Ezekiel Cbeever was master of this school from 1661 to 
1670 ; and Benjamin Thompson, another celebrated teacher, 
was engaged in 1671, at thirty pounds per annum.^ 

Of Ipswich, it is recorded that, in 1636, " A Grammar 
School is set up, but does not succeed." But in 1651, cer- 
tain town lands were turned over to trustees for the benefit 
of a grammar school, and later the school was endowed 
with certain lands by Eobert and William Paine. This is 
another of the spots where Ezekiel Cheever tarried and 
taught on his way to the Boston Latin School. He was 
master in Ipswich for ten years, 1651-1661, and here he 
built a barn and planted an orchard.'^ 

In 1637, the Eev. John Fisk opened a school in Salem ; 
and in 1640, at " A generall towne meeting, yong Mr. Norris 
[was] chose by this assembly to teach schoole." This Mr. 
Norris seems to have taught for more than thirty years in 
Salem. The town was deeply interested in education. Even 
before a grammar school is mentioned in the records, refer- 
ence is made to a project " for the building of a colledge ; " 
and later records show repeated appropriations in aid of 
Harvard College."^ 

Dorchester, wonderfully enterprising town that it was 
in many ways, voted on the twentieth of May, 1639, old 
style, " that there shall be a rent of 201b a year for eve' 
imposed vpon Tomsons Island . . . towards the maynte- 

^ Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, iv., part 
1, p. 400. 

2 Barnard's Am. Journ. Ed., xxvii., p. 127; the same repeated, Am. 
Journ. Ed., xxviii., p. 134. 

8 Felt, History of Ipswich, pp. 83-84. Hammatt, The grammar school 
at Ipsivich. 

* Joseph B. Felt, iu Am. Journ. Ed., xxvii., p. 97 H'. 



EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 47 

which should come into the hands of the same trustees for 
the same purpose, on the death of his wife. That unfortu- 
nate woman had been given to much reading and writing, 
and her husband, "being very loving and tender of her," as 
the elder Winthrop remarked, had indulged her in these 
unwomanly occupations. As a result, her mind had become 
deranged ; and it was her furtheT misfortune to outlive her 
gentle husband more than forty years. By that time, the 
original trustees were all dead and gone. Their successors 
seem to have made some feeble attempt to secure the five 
hundred pounds, but nothing came of the effort. Then the 
new Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which was 
setting up schools in the colonies, sought to have it en- 
trusted to them. At this stage of proceedings, the authori- 
ties of Harvard College took energetic measures which led to 
the following result : That a decree in Chancery was secured, 
in 1712, making over this fund, with accrued interest, to a 
new board of trustees, for the joint benefit of Harvard Col- 
lege and the Cambridge Grammar School. To this day, Con- 
necticut men speak with admiration, not unmixed with other 
feeling, of the successful strategy which captured this prize 
for Cambridge.^ 

The administration of the original Hopkins fund may be 
described in few words. The share assigned to New 
Haven was devoted to the support of a grammar school, the 
trustees having made it over to the town for that purpose. 
The Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven has had a 
highly useful career, now nearly two hundred and forty years 
in length.2 

Hartford voted, in 1664, to place the administration of its 
portion of the fund in the hands of a committee of five. 
This committee had full discretionary power, but the town 
reserved the right to limit them by instructions from time 

^ History of the Hopkins fmul, gravimar school, and aaidemy in Hadley ; 
Bacon, The Hopkins Grammar School. Of. Barnard, History of com- 
mon schools in Connecticut; Steiner, History of ediication in Connecticut; 
Hinsdale, Documents illustrative of American educational history, 

"^ Bacon, ojj. cit. 



(8 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCH.OOLS 

) time. A free school was accordingly established on the 

Hopkins foundation in 1665. During a large part of its 

irlier history, this seems to have been hardly more than a 

rimary school.^ 

In 1669, the town of Hadley, in accordance with the 
; Toposal of Mr. Goodwin, one of the original trustees, com- 
laitted the management of her portion of the fund to a 
-r.anding committee of five, who were empowered to fill 
' acancies in tlieir own number. Membership in this com- 
Miittee was no sinecure, for the town had ideas of its own 
■nd sought to drive the committee in ways that it would 

ot go. There had been a school in Hadley from 1665, for 
,;,ae benefit of which the town had set apart " two little 

leadows, next beyond the brook." This endowment also 
came under the control of the committee of five. The pro- 
;jerty was improved by building a mill alongside of the 
vTOok ; and that mill ground out a grist of trouble for the 

ommittee and the town. In spite of everything, a classical 
^chool of fair grade seems to have been maintained during 
; he greater part of the colonial period.^ 

In Ehode Island, one hundred acres were set apart by 
^'ote of the colony, in 1640, *' for a school for encouragement 
of the poorer sort, to train up their youth in learning." This 
■chool was located at Newport, and seems to have been in 
ixistence down to 1774. Similar provision was made in 
1663 for the town of Providence.^ 

(jrrammar school education in Virginia did not go down 
;)nce for all with the failure of the East India School. 
Benjamin Syms, a planter of that colony, is distinguished as 
' the first of emigrant Englishmen to bequeath an educa- 
donal endowment after the pattern set by English philan- 
thropists in the ages before him." * By his will, made 

1 Triennial catalogue of the Hartford Public High School; article, The 
Hopkins bequest at Hartford, i\\ Am. Journ. Ed., XXVIII., p. 185 ff. 

2 JuDD, Hopkins school at Hadley, in Am. Journ. Ed., XXVIII., p. 145 ff. 
Of. History of the Hopkins fund, grammar school and academy in Hadley. 

8 ToLMAN, Higher education in Ehode Island. 
^ Eggleston, op. cit., p. 221. 



EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 49 

February 12, 1634-5, he left two hundred acres of land, 
together with a herd of eight milch cows, to found a free 
school in Elizabeth County. The land thus devised was 
located on the Poquoson, a small river flowing into Chesa- 
peake Bay, a mile or less below the mouth of York 
Eiver. The school was intended for the instruction of the 
children of the parishes of Elizabeth City and Kiquotan. 
The Virginia Assembly, in March, 1642-3, passed an act 
confirming this grant. One writing from Virginia in 1647 
speaks in terms of enthusiasm of this foundation, and repre- 
sents the herd as having then increased to forty milch cows. 
Thomas Eaton, probably at some time previous to 1646, en- 
dowed another school with 250 acres of land in this same 
region, " at the head of Back river within a mile of the 
wading place, joining to the beaver dams." This grant 
received legislative sanction in 1730. The Syms and 
Eaton endowments were finally consolidated, and the income 
therefrom is now devoted to the support of the Hampton 
High School. 

Capt. John Moon, by will proved in 1655, gave four cows 
for educational and charitable purposes, and a free school 
seems to have arisen on this foundation in Newport parish, 
Isle of Wight County. Henry King, in 1668, bequeathed 
one hundred acres of land in the same county " for the 
maintainance of a free school." Henry Peasley, in 1675, 
endowed a free school in Gloucester County, for the benefit 
of Abingdon and Ware parishes. This foundation consisted 
of six hundred acres of land, ten cows, and one breeding 
mare. Several slaves were added later by other donors. 

No account of secondary education in Virginia could 
possibly pass over the many-tiraes-quoted saying of Governor 
Berkeley. The Lord Commissioners of Foreign Plantations, 
in 1671, had propounded to him several inquiries, among 
them being the following : " What course is taken about the 
instructing the people within your government in the Chris- 
tian religion ? " 'To this the rough-spoken governor replied, 
" The same that is taken in England out of towns ; every 

4 



50 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

man according to his own ability instructing his chiklren. 
. . . But, I thank God, there are no free schools and 
printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years ; 
for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects 
into this world, and printing has divulged them, and libels 
against the best government. God keep us from both ! " 

Of the many commentaries on this report which have 
appeared, perhaps the most sane and suggestive is that offered 
by the editor of the William and Mary College Quarterly. 
" The facts," he says, " prove that Berkeley could not have 
meant that there were no schools in the colony, or no schools 
giving gratuitous instruction (as is understood now by the 
term/ree). As ' free school ' then signified a school affording 
a liberal education, perhaps he did not choose to regard the 
Syms or Eaton school as coming up to this standard, since they 
aspired to little beyond teaching the ' three E's.' He had in 
mind such a school as Eton or Harrow, or the colleges at the 
universities in England. This supposition is confirmed by 
the fact that, eleven years before (in 1660), the colonial 
Assembly had passed an act for the founding of ' a college 
and free schoole,' to which object Berkeley, the council, and 
the members of the General Assembly all subscribed. This 
free school had not materialized as expected, and it was 
certainly its failure that was uppermost in Berkeley's mind 
when he said, in 1671, that there were no free schools in 
Virginia." ^ 

The hoped-for college was finally established by charter 
obtained from William and Mary in February, 1692-3. 
This was first opened as a grammar school, and so con- 
tinued for many years. Then it expanded into a highly 
useful and influential college. The real history of secondary 
and higher education in Virginia dates from this foundation, 

1 Educatio7i in colonial Virginia, Part III., in William and Mary College 
Quarterly, VI., p. 83. Even this interpretation does not explain Berkeley's 
pious wish that they may have no free schools for a hundred years. Why not 
at this point fall back on the simple supposition that Berkeley, like many other 
men, was inconsistent, especially when he came to the intoxicating occupation 
of writing an official report ! 



EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 51 

which was of incalculable value to the higher life of the 
southern colonies. 

It appears, then, that in spite of plantation life, so gener- 
ally unfavorable to the building up of schools, there were 
lovers of learning in our oldest colony, and the seeds of 
literary culture were planted there. Yet Mr. Eggleston is 
justified in his shrewd comment on the Virginia situation : 
"The College of William and Mary did uot get under way 
until the last years of the seventeenth century ; there was 
no bishop on this side of the sea to induct men into holy 
orders; the primitive statecraft of the colony needed no 
other tongue than the vernacular, aided occasionally by 
Indian interpreters, so that the free Latin school of early 
Virginia was a short ladder with nothing but empty space 
at the top of it. Latin was studied merely as a gentleman's 
accomplishment." ^ 

The West India Company, as early as 1629, issued a 
decree requiring the patroons and colonists of New Nether- 
land to " endeavor to find out ways and means whereby 
they may supply a minister and sclioolmaster." The estab- 
lishment of schools and the appointment of schoolmasters 
seem to have depended on joint action of the Company and 
the Classis (Presbytery) of Amsterdam. An elementary 
school was established in 1633 in connection with the church 
at New Amsterdam.^ In 1658 we find an effort making to 
secure a school of higher grade. The West India Company 
first suggested such a step to the Director General of the 
colony. Then the burgomasters and schepens sent back 
a petition, in which, after some reference to " the great 
augmentation of the youth in the Province," it is represented 

1 Op. cit., p. 222. Cf. Mr. Fiske's account of early education in Virginia 
in Old Fi'^ginia mid her neighbors, II., -p'p. 245-253, and the articles in the 
William and Mary College Quarterly already referred to. The statutory 
history of the schools is to be found in the volumes of Hening's Statutes, 
and in the reprints given by Miss Clew^s. 

2 This school is still flourishing and is probably entitled to the designation 
" The oldest school in America." In recent years, it has added classes of 
secondary grade, so that it now prepares boys for college. 



52 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

that "the burghers and inhabitants are . . . inclined to 
have their children instructed in the most useful languages, 
the chief of which is the Latin tongue ; and as there are 
no means to do so here, the nearest being at Boston, in New 
England, a great distance from here, . . . we . . . humbly 
request your Honors would be pleased to send us a suitable 
person for master of a Latin school, . . . not doubting but 
were such a person here, many of the neighboring places 
would send their children hither to be instructed in that 
tongue ; hoping that, increasing from year to year, it may 
finally attain to an Academy, whereby this place arriving 
at great splendor, your Honors shall have the reward and 
praise, next to God the Lord who will grant his blessing 
to it." 

The petition was granted, and Alexander Carolus Curtius, 
a Lithuanian schoolmaster, was engaged for the new school, 
at a salary of five hundred florins a year. Curtius appeared 
before the burgomasters July 4, 1659. The city promptly 
added two hundred florins a year to his salary, and after 
some haggling about further additions, the school was begun. 
But all did not go smoothly. The new rector, for so he 
was called, got into a lawsuit, which turned on the question 
whether he was to pay five beavers or only two beavers and 
two blankets for a hog that he had bought. The burgo- 
masters reprimanded him for taking one beaver per quarter 
from the boys, instead of the six guilders they had authorized. 
The parents complained that there was no proper discipline 
in his school. The boys "beat each other and tore the 
clothes from each others' backs." The rector was able 
to retort that "his hands were tied, as some of the parents 
forbade him punishing their children." But at last, in 1661, 
he was dismissed, and the Eev. ^gidius Luyck was installed 
in his place. 

The new master was a man of a different sort. He soon 
brought the attendance in the school up to twenty, two of 
that number coming from Virginia and two from Fort 
Orange (Albany). After the capture of the city by the 



, EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 53 

English, this school is said to have been continued for about 
eight years. There was no public Latin school on Man- 
hattan Island thereafter, and probably none in the colony 
of New York, until the following century.^ 

During the governorship of Thomas Dongan, however, 
the Jesuit Fathers Harvey and Harrison opened an institu- 
tion known as the New York Latin School, which probably 
flourished for several years. It came to an end with the 
fall of King James and of the Eoman Catholic governor, in 
1688; and no other Catholic school appears in New York 
till after the Eevolutionary War.^ 

We find reference to a private school of this grade, kept 
by Mr. David Jamison, who had been liberally educated in 
Scotland. He appeared in New York as a " redemptioner," 
probably some time in the sixteen-eighties. His services 
were secured by some of the chief men of the place, who 
" set him to teach a lattin school, which he attended for 
some time with great industry and success."^ Jamison 
later rose to colonial distinction, becoming- Secretary of the 
Province, and Chief Justice of New Jersey. 

Plymouth Colony did not make its beginning till 1670, 
when the general court set apart the income from the Cape 
Cod fisheries — mackerel, bass, and herring — for the support 
of a free school. In accordance with this provision, a 
school was established at Plymouth.^ 

The strange medley of nationalities and religions in 
Pennsylvania gave promise of interesting educational develop- 
ments. This promise was fulfilled in later days, but the 
beginnings were made painfully. The proprietary govern- 
ment proposed at the outset to " erect and order all public 
schools." But this advanced position was soon abandoned. 

^ Pratt, Annals of public education, in the Report of the Regents of the 
State of New York for 1869, pp. 833, 834, 852-857, 862-865, 886. 

* CoNSiDiNE, Catholic educational institutions in the Archdiocese of New 
York, pp. 7-8. 

' Governor Hunter to the Lords of Trade. Quoted by Pratt, Annals of 
public education. Eighty-third report of the Regents, p. 670. 

* Plymouth colony records, V., j-p. 107-108. 



54 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Even before the grant to William Penu, there were Quakers 
in the territory which was to become Pennsylvania, and 
some of these were taking thought for education beyond 
that of elementary grade. George Fox, as early as 1667, 
advised the setting up of a school for boys at Waltham 
Abbey, in Essex County. Here three years later, Christo- 
pher Taylor, a Friend, who is said to have been a profound 
scholar, opened a classical school. He was, however, soon 
brought before a magistrate on the charge of teaching with- 
out a certificate from the Bishop of London, after which he 
returned to England. At a later date we find him receiving 
a grant of five thousand acres of land from the Proprietary, 
and setting up a school on " Tinicum, alias College Island," 
where he died in 1686. Mr. Wickersham says of this Tini- 
cum Island school, established in 1684, that it " was without 
doubt the first school of high grade in Pennsylvania." ^ 

It is said that "William Penn, in 1689, directed the Presi- 
dent of the Council of Pennsylvania to set up a public gram- 
mar school in Philadelphia, promising to incorporate it at 
some later time. A school was established in that year by 
leading Friends, which was open to children of all denomi- 
nations. George Keith was called from Freehold, New 
Jersey, to be the master. He was a Friend, a learned man, 
who had had experience as a schoolmaster in the mother 
country. Later he turned against the Quakers and became 
the first American agent of the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel. His salary as master in Philadelphia was 
fifty pounds a year, together with all the profits of the 
school, and a house was provided for his family. He was 
to receive a much higher salary the second year; but he 
met with indifferent success, and was succeeded at the end 
of the first year by his usher, Thomas Makin. Something 
like forty years after his first appearance in the school, we 
find Thomas Makin writing a Latin poem descriptive of 
Philadelphia. In 1733, then an old man and very poor, he 

1 Wickersham, Education in Pennsylvania, pp. 26-28, 81, 463. 



EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 65 

fell from a wharf into the Delaware Eiver, and was drowned 
before he could be rescued. 

The school seems to have been managed for some years 
by a few citizens, without incorporation. A charter was 
granted by Governor Markham, in 1697, which cannot now 
be found. The institution was rechartered by William Penn 
in 1701, in 1708, and again in 1711. It was designated as 
" The Public School founded by Charter in the town and 
county of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania." This name is 
commonly untangled by calling it the " William Penn 
Charter School." The overseers were given large powers 
for the establishment of branch schools of lower grade, and 
through several generations they conducted such schools for 
the benefit of the poor of Philadelphia. ^ 

While Sir Francis Nicholson was governor of Virginia, he 
not only encouraged and furthered the establishment of 
William and Mary College, but gave certain lots and houses 
of his own for the endowment of another free school in that 
colony. When that active official became governor of Mary- 
land, he displayed in his new field a like zeal for religion 
and education. At his recommendation an act was passed 
by the colonial assembly providing for the support of clergy- 
men of the Church of England, and so virtually extending 
the English Establishment to the colony. This step was 
soon followed by the passage of an act, also recommended by 
the governor, " for the erecting of free schools." 

This act was first passed in 1694, but was not approved 
until passed in amended form in 1696. In its final shape, it 
provided " that for the propagation of the gospel, and the 
education of the youth of this province in good letters and 
manners, that a certain place or places, for a free school or 
schools, or place of study of Latin, Greek, writing, and the 
like, consisting of one master, one usher, and one writing 
master or scribe, to a school, and one hundred scholars, more 
or less, according to the ability of the said free school, may 

1 WiCKERSHAM, Op. cU., pp. 41-50. 



56 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

be made, erected, founded, propagated and established." 
For the management of these schools, a corporation was 
formed, to be known as the Eectors, Governors, Trustees, and 
Visitors of the Free Schools of Maryland. The corporation 
was authorized to make all necessary orders and rules for 
the government of schools ; but such rules must not only be 
in accord with the laws of England and of Maryland, but 
also with " the canons and constitutions of the Church of 
England." The Archbishop of Canterbury was made chan- 
cellor of these schools. 

It was provided that as soon as one free school had been 
set up and an income of one hundred and twenty pounds a 
year secured for it, the Eectors, Governors, etc., should pro- 
ceed to set up a similar school in another county ; and so on 
till every county in the province should be provided. The 
governor, members of the assembly, and others promptly 
contributed their various amounts of tobacco for this laud- 
able undertaking ; and duties were levied on specified im- 
ports and exports for the benefit of the schools : on liquors, 
furs, bacon, etc. The outcome of these efforts was King 
William's School at Annapolis, which eventually developed 
into St. John's College. The original board of trustees got 
no further than the establishment of this one school, but 
even so much was great gain for the colony. 

It must not be supposed, however, that this was the 
earliest effort in the direction of secondary education that 
was made in Maryland. Ealph Crouch, we are told, " opened 
schools for teaching humanities " in the colony between the 
years 1639 and 1659. Mr. Crouch was closely associated 
with the Jesuits, and after his return to Europe was ad- 
mitted to their order. A priest, writing in 1681, tells of 
"a school for humanities," opened four years before that 
time, in which some of the native youth had made good 
progress.-^ 

1 Steinee, Address at the alumni reunion of Frederick College. Idem, 
History of education in Maryland. Clews, Edxicational legislation and ad- 
ministration, passim. 



EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS bl 

The facts presented in this chapter will give some indica- 
tion of the various ways in which beginnings were made in 
the establishment of grammar schools in several of the colo- 
nies during the seventeenth century. Thus far we have 
been chiefly concerned with separate schools. An account 
of the organization of general systems of education in some 
of the colonies is reserved for the next chapter. 

The general condition of these colonial schools, and the 
nature and scope of the instruction given in them, must be 
reserved for still later consideration. But one or two of 
their more striking characteristics may be mentioned here. 
The schools were generally established with distinct refer- 
ence to preparation for the more advanced studies of the 
college. Sometimes they prepared for a college only hoped- 
for as yet. But in New England they were tributary to 
Harvard, and later to Yale as well. In Virginia and Mary- 
land they led up to the College of William and Mary, when 
at last that college was established. Other colleges did not 
come into existence till the second great wave of interest in 
things of the higher life swept over the colonies. 

The college and the grammar school, then, were parts of 
one educational system, though not bound together in one 
system of administration. In both alike the ideal of educa- 
tion was an ideal of public service. They were established 
to train up young men " for the service of God, in church 
and commonwealth." And the form of public service which 
was uppermost in the minds of their founders was the Chris- 
tian ministry. Even preparation for the other learned pro- 
fessions and for political life might be left to take care of 
itself, but it was felt to be essential that a body of educated 
ministers should be trained up for the public offices of relig- 
ion. We shall not understand our educational development 
if we fail to see that modern systems of education, like 
much else in our modern civilization, are deeply rooted in 
the religious life of two and three centuries ago. 

The way in which these modern systems have grown up 
out of that ecclesiastical soil is one of the most interesting: 



68 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

subjects with whicli educational history has to do. Some 
of the beginnings of this development will be noted in the 
chapter next following. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

Not mucli need be added to the book references contained in the foot-notes 
to this chapter. Where these refer to books which may be regarded as be- 
longing to the history of our secondary education, the titles are included in 
the general bibliography given at the end of the volume. Works having 
only an incidental bearing upon this subject are generally collections of re- 
prints of historical documents, or other standard publications, which are 
sufficiently indicated by the short titles employed in the foot-notes. 

We are fortunate in having the documentary material relating to a few 
schools and sections, carefully edited and pubhshed iu good shape. The 
Catalogue of 1S86 of the Boston Latin School is the most admirable 
publication of this sort that I have ever seen. Dillaway's Free schoole 
ill Roxburie, and Bacon's Hopkins Grammar School, are valuable. There is 
an interesting collection of reprints in tiie History of the Hopkins fund, 
etc., a publication authorized by the trustees of the Hopkins Academy 
at Hadley. Pkatt's Annals bring together a large part of the available 
first-hand accounts of early education in New York. Mr. Wickeksham 
evidently made use of original materials in preparing his very valuable 
history of education in Pennsylvania; but his references are not suf- 
ficiently numerous and definite. The series of Contributions to Ameri- 
can Educational History edited by the late Professou Herbert B. Adams 
and issued by the Bureau of Education, contains numerous bibliographies 
which are of value in connection with this and succeeding chapters. 

Dr. Hinsdale's Documents illustrative of American educational history ; 
and the more extensive work of Miss Clews, Educational legislation and 
administration, are indispensable in sucli a study as this. 

A comprehensive study of documents relating to the early history of 
educational institutions in New England has recently been made by Mr. 
Walter H. Small, superintendent of schools at Providence, Rhode Island, 
tlie results of which have not yet been published. Mr. SnuiU has kindly 
sent me summaries of some portion of his collection. 

Interesting references to the educational activity of the burghs of 
Scotland in mediseval times may be found iu the works of Grant and 
Edgar referred to in the bibliographical notes to chapter IV; and the 
similar activity of mediseval German towns is set forth by 

Specht, Tranz Anton. Geschichte des Unterrichtsweseus in Deutsch- 
land von den altesten Zeiten bis zur Mitte des 13ten Jahrhunderts. 
Stuttgart, 1885. Pp. 12 + 411. 



EARLY COLONIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 59 

New England's first fruits has been reprinted in Sabia's Historical 
tracts, quarto series, no. 7 (1865) ; and (in part) in the^Old South Leaiiets, 
general series, no. 51. 

One of John Brinsley's books, entitled. The consolation for our gram- 
mar schools, was prepared " for laj'iug of a sure Foundation of all good 
Learning in our Schools, . . . More especially for all . . . ruder Coun- 
tries and Places : Namely for Ireland, Wales, Virginia, with the Sommer 
[Bermuda] Islands. . . . Especially for drawing the poor Natives in Vir- 
ginia, and all other of the rest of the Rude and Barbarous from Sathan 
to God." The attention of the Virginia Company was called to this book 
while the project of the East India School was still before them. It was 
remarked that it had been " compiled by a painefuU schoolm'', one Mr. John 
Brinsley; whereupon the Court gave order that the Conipauie's thanks 
should be giuen unto him, and appointed a select Committee to pruse the 
said Booke." Mr. Copeland, who had been admitted as a "free Brother" 
of the Company, out of gratitude for his services, was a member of this 
committee. They were to make report of their opinion of the book, but it 
does not appear that such a report was ever presented. Cf. Neill, op. 
cit., pp. 273, 274. 



CHAPTEE IV 

COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 

It appears that the Maryland legislature was not content 
with setting up a single school at Annapolis, but proposed 
to make this the beginning of a comprehensive system, em- 
bracing a similar school in every county of the colony. The 
scheme failed, to be sure, getting no further than the estab- 
lishment of King William's SchooL But the idea was not 
lost, and a colonial county system was realized in the follow- 
ing century, as we shall see. Even if nothing had come of 
it, such legislation would be worthy of further notice. 

For here we have the civil power undertaking to establish, 
not only a school, but a territorial system of schools, at a 
time when in the mother country such a system existed 
only in a fragmentary fashion, and that in close dependence 
upon the ecclesiastical establishment. Besides, this action 
of Maryland's was not the first nor the most important step 
that the colonies had taken in this direction. Already colo- 
nial systems of education were part of the established order 
of things in New England. Such a break with the past calls 
for some explanation, especially as the modern movement in 
education has so largely taken this same direction. 

The old order of school administration in England ^yas 
described, in few words, by Dr. Kn^ight in his Life of Colet : 
" The State of Schools in London before Dean Colet' s Foun- 
dation was to this Effect : the Chancellour of Paul's (as in 
all the ancient . Oathedrcd Churches) was Master of the 
ScJiools (^Magister ScJiolarum) having the Direction and 
Government of Literature, not only within the Church, but 
within the whole Citi/ ; so that all the Masters and Teachers 



COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 61 

of Grammar depended on him, and were subject to liim." ^ 
This describes the practice that had been followed for cen- 
turies, with many minor variations, in Eoman Catholic lands. 
The system of church government was an episcopal system ;''^ 
and the schools, like other spiritual concerns, when not under 
the direct oversight of the See of Eome, were subject to the 
bishop of the diocese, either directly or through some inter- 
mediate functionary. 

The Protestant movement was marked by many divergent 
views of the episcopal system of church government ; and 
the Protestant reorganization of the church was attended 
with grave practical difficulties. Out of it all there arose 
several strongly marked types of ecclesiastical polity, asso- 
ciated with various systems of Protestant theology. Three 
of the most notable of those types and systems are the An- 
glican, the Lutheran, and the Calvinistic. 

These familiar facts are reviewed because of their bearing 
on our educational history. Long before the Eeformation, a 
decided movement toward the increase of educational facili- 
ties was in progress in various countries of Europe, England 
included. The Eeformation gave new impetus to this move- 
ment through its insistence upon the demand that every 
person should understand the way of salvation, and that the 
entrance upon that way should be a matter of intelligent 
choice. Secondarily, it reinforced the educational movement 
in both Protestant and Catholic countries, by making a new 
demand for such trained intelligence as should successfully 
combat theological errors and heresies. But the systems of 
school administration followed the fortunes of the episcopal 
system of which they formed a part. 

1 Op. cit., p. 116. 

2 Not many readers, I suppose, will have need to be reminded that the 
word episcopal in its general sense ia simpl}' the adjective corresponding to the 
noun, bishop. Yet I find some college students who require this explanation. 
An episcopal church is one the government of which is centered in the office of 
bishop. What endless controversies have raged about that office — investiture, 
apostolic succession, jurisdiction, trusteeship, and many others, early and 
late ! 



62 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

In the Anglican Church the diocesan organization was 
continued after the Eeformation with but little change of 
form. The schools accordingly continued under episcopal, 
and therefore ecclesiastical, control. Lutheran Germany 
was not averse to the episcopal system, but was compelled 
by circumstances to commit the episcopal functions to the 
hands of temporal princes. This arrangement bridged the 
passage of the schools from ecclesiastical to civil control, and 
resulted in the building up of strong state systems of edu- 
cation. Calvinism, finally, tended in varying degrees toward 
the rejection of the episcopal system and a virtual division 
of the episcopal functions between representative presbyteries 
and synods of the church and a civil power dominated by 
religious ideals. This system, too, facilitated the transfer of 
educational control to the civil authority. At the same time, 
by the strongest possible emphasis on the sacred scriptures 
as " the only infallible rule of faith and practice," Calvinism 
pushed to the front the demand for instruction, and particu- 
larly for linguistic training. The result was the remarkable 
development of public education in Holland and Scotland 
and other Calvinistic portions of Europe, and in the Ameri- 
can colonies. 

The ecclesiastical and educational setting of American 
colonization may be briefly sketched as follows : The Puritan 
movement within the English Church had been very far- 
reaching in the days of Elizabeth ; and Puritanism was 
almost universally Calvinistic. The Puritans had hoped 
for countenance and aid from James I., but they discovered 
their mistake at the very beginning of his reign. James 
proved himself an ardent supporter of the episcopal system. 
His oft-quoted saying, " No bishop, no king," was uttered at 
the Hampton Court conference, in January, 1605. Even 
earlier than this, the episcopal control of education had been 
expressly confirmed in the Canons of 1603. The seventy- 
seventh of these Canons read as follows : 

" No man shall teach either in publike schoole, or priuate 
house, but such as shall be allowed by the Bishop of the 



COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 63 

Diocese, or Ordinarie of the place vnder his hand & Scale, 
being found meete as well for his learning and dexteritie in 
teaching, as for sober and honest conuersation, and also for 
right vnderstanding of Gods true Eeligion, and also except 
bee shall first subscribe to the first and third Articles afore 
mentioned simply, and to the two first clauses of the second 
Article." 

All shades of religious belief were represented in the 
movement toward America in the seventeenth century ; but 
the most vitally and widely influential was undoubtedly the 
Calvinism of the Puritans, which appeared not only in New 
England, but penetrated almost every region, and made 
itself felt in the affairs of all of the earlier colonies. While 
the first Puritans were devoted adherents of the Church of 
England, the progress of events on both sides of the water 
tended to drive them into separatism. This tendency went 
its full length more quickly in the colonies than in the 
mother country, and the distinctively Puritan colonies were 
soon far beyond the reach of any sort of ecclesiastical control 
from the side of the English Church. For a long period 
such control was, in truth, but little felt in any of the 
colonies. 

For various reasons, no bishopric of the Church of Eng- 
land was set up in America. Such ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
as was exercised by that Church in this country was in the 
hands of the Bishop of London. This seems to have been 
an informal arrangement ; ^ but it was the ground of the 

1 " The five clergymen, who miglit have been sufficient for the colony had 
it remained concentrated iu Jamestown and its immediate vicinity, were nn- 
ahle to reach with their spiritual ministrations so scattered a flock. The 
Virginia council, therefore, applied to the Bishop of London to assist them 
in providing ' pious, learned, and painful ministers.' The bishop was forth- 
with chosen a member of the King's council for Virginia ; and, as the result of 
Bishop King's personal and official interest and love, the spiritual jurisdiction 
of the Bishop of London was henceforth continuously recognised in America 
during the whole period of its colonial history, though no special measures 
were at this time, or ever, adopted to formally incorporate Virginia, or any 
American colony, within the diocese of London." — Tiffany, JTistory of the 
Protestant Episcoixil Church in the United Statea, ji. 23. 



64 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

claim occasionally met with that no schoolmaster should 
be allowed to teach in this country who did not hold the 
Bishop of London's certificate (under the provisions of the 
canon quoted above). Such is the explanation of the closing 
of Mr. Taylor's school in Pennsylvania.^ The instructions 
issued to Governor Dongan of New York, in 1686, contained 
the following injunction : " And wee doe further direct that 
noe Schoolmaster bee henceforth permitted to come from 
England & to keep school within Our Province of New York 
without the license of the said Archbishop of Canterbury." 
Similar instructions were issued to Governor Sloughter in 
1689, to the Earl of Bellomont in 1697, and to Governor 
Hunter in 1709 ; but these all required the license of the 
Bishop of London instead of that of the Archbishop.^ 

It was in New England that the power of the English 
Church was weakest and Calvinism at its height. What 
English Puritans dreamed of as of things far off, their friends 
in New England could forthwith bring to pass. The plan 
of government drawn up by the democratic party in Eng- 
land in 1647 declared, with reference to Parliament, "That 
matters of Keligion, and the wayes of God's worship, are not 
at all intrusted by us to any humane power, . . . neverthe- 
lesse the publike way of instructing the Nation (so it be not 
compulsive) is referred to their discretion." ^ That same 
year, the General Court of Massachusetts passed its epoch- 
making act providing for public instruction. 

This act read as follows : 

" It being one cheife piect of y* ould deluder, Satan, to keepe men 
from the knowledge of y*^ Scriptures, as in form' times by keeping 
y"" in an unknowne tongue, so in these latf times by pswading from 
y* use of tongues, y' so at least y* true seuce & meaning of y^ origi- 
nall might be clouded by false glosses of saint seomiTig deceivers, 
y* learning may not be buried in y* grave of o'' fath''* in y*^ cluu'ch 
& coinonwealth, the Lord assisting o"' endeavor's, — 

1 See p. hi. 

2 Pratt, Annals of education in Neiv York., pp. 69-70. 

8 This rare document, entitled "An agreement of the people," is re- 



COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 65 

" It is therefore ord'ed, y' ev'y towneship in this iurisdiction, 
aff y^ Lord hath increased y"" to y^ number of 50 houshold", 
shall then forthw**" appoint one w'^n their towne to teach all such 
children as shall resort to him to write and reads, whose wages 
sliall he paid eith' by y* parents or mast" of such children, or by 
y*" inhabitants in gen'all, by way of supply, as y® maior pt of those 
y' ord"' y* prudentials of y* towne shall appoint; pvided, those 
y' send their children be not oppressed by paying much more y° 
they can have y™ taught for in otli' townes ; & it is furth'' ordered, 
y' where any towne shall increase to y** numb'' of 100 families or 
househould" , they shall set up a grai5er schoole, y* m'^ thereof 
being able to instruct youth so farr as they may be fited for y^ uni- 
versity, pvided, y' if any towne neglect y" pformance hereof above 
one yeare, y* every such towne shall pay 5* to y^ next schoole till 
they shall p forme this order." ^ 

This was the first act of Massachusetts Bay Colony pro- 
viding for elementary and secondary schools, but not the 
first act relating to education. Harvard College had been 
established, and provision made for its support and manage- 
ment. An act of 1642 had charged the selectmen in all of 
the towns to see that parents and masters provided for the 
education of their children, to the extent of teaching them 
to read and understand the principles of religion and the 
capital laws of the country, and to engage in some suitable 
employment. In 1645 it liad been ordered that all youth 
in the colony from ten to sixteen years of age should receive 
military training, including instruction " in y® exercise of 
armes, as small guns, halfe pikes, bowes & arrowes, &c." 

The law of 1647 is significant in that it required all of 
the larger towns to act after a pattern already set by the 
voluntary action of the more enterprising communities. It 
may, perhaps, be added to this, that it is significant as pro- 
ceeding from the civil authority. I do not know of any 
earlier act establishing a school system in any country of 

printed in Borgeaud's Rise of modern democracy, from which (p. 71) the 
above quotation is made. 

^ Records of the governor and compamj of the Massachusetts Bay in New 
England, II., p. 203. 

5 



66 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

modem Christendom, which was so distinctly civil in its 
character. 

Care must be taken, however, not to claim too much for 
such an apparently new departure as this. It is glory enough 
for any historic act, if it turn the current of human affairs 
to any appreciable degree in a direction along which noble 
achievements shall be wrought out by later generations. 
The Massachusetts law went only a little further than the 
exhortations and charges sometimes addressed by princes in 
Catholic lands and times to the higher clergy and monastic 
orders of their realms. Charles the Great is a conspicuous 
example of a Catholic king who participated directly in 
matters of education. In more ways than one the traditions 
of the Eoman Empire were resumed under his rule. Educa- 
tion had been recognized under the Roman Empire as a civil 
function. In some sense the gradual assumption of educa- 
tional control by the civil power since the Eeformation is 
the resumption of a civil function which had been in abey- 
ance through the intervening centuries, save in occasional 
and scattered instances. It was, undoubtedly, both more 
and less than this. 

When the Massachusetts act was passed, important begin- 
nings in this resumption of civil control had been made in 
other lands, both Lutheran and Calvinistic. In some of the 
German states the sovereign power had already set up 
systems of schools.^ But we can hardly say that, previous 
to the eighteenth century, any German prince had issued 
decrees relating to education in his civil, as distinct from 
his ecclesiastical, capacity. 

Great efforts had been put forth to provide education for 
the people of Holland, and for that age the endeavor 
had met with considerable success. But the system was 
still primarily ecclesiastical in character. The Synod of 
Dort, in 1618, had laid great emphasis upon school instruc- 
tion ; but what that synod had in view was mainly instruc- 
tion in the catechism, as carried on in parochial schools. 
1 Cf. Russell, German higher schooli, chapters 2 and 3. 



COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 67 

Such references as we find to educational activity on the 
part of the state are exceedingly vague. 

The educational history of Scotland is peculiarly rich in 
examples of the interaction of civil and ecclesiastical 
authorities, and one finds great difficulty in the search for a 
leading clue through the mass of royal decrees, acts of 
parliament and of general assembly, and records of munici- 
pal proceedings with which it has to do. Even before the 
Eeformation, this interaction had begun. After the Eefor- 
mation the reorganized national church repeatedly urged 
the civil authorities to lend their aid in the effort to edu- 
cate the people. The First Book of Discipline, prepared 
under the immediate influence of Knox and others of the 
early reformers, presented a comprehensive scheme for a 
system of public schools, elementary, secondary, and higher, 
and called on the state for authority to put the plan into 
effect. In 1616 the Privy Council passed a decree imposing 
on each parish the obligation to support a school. This 
decree was ratified by an act of the Scotch parliament in 
1633. These proceedings, taken upon the urgent call of the 
national church, seem to have treated the school primarily 
as a dependency of the church. Still more active efforts, 
put forth by ecclesiastical assemblies, were followed in 1646 
by a more definite parliamentary enactment. The most 
important provisions of this act read as follows : 

" The Estates of Parliament now conveened, in the fifth Session 
of this first Triennall Parliament, Considering how prejudiciall the 
want of Schools in many congregations hath been, and how bene- 
ficiall the founding thereof in every congregation will be to this 
Kirk and Kingdom ; Do therefore Statute and Ordain, That there 
be a Schoole founded, and a Schoole master appointed in every 
Parish (not aheady provided) by advice of the Presbyterie : And 
to this purpose, that the Heritors in every congregation meet 
among themselves, and provide a commodious house for a Schoole, 
and modifie a stipend to the Schoole master, which shall not be 
under Ane hundred Merks, nor above Tua hundred Merks, to be 
paid yeerly at two Terms : And to this effect that they set down 



G8 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

a stent upon every ones Eent of stock and teind in the Parish, 
proportionally to the worth thereof, for maintenance of the Schoole, 
and payment of the Schoole masters stipend ; Which stipend is 
declared to be due to the Schoole masters by and attour the casual- 
ities which formerly belonged to Readers and Clerks of Kirk Ses- 
sions. And if the Heritors shall not conveene, or being conveened 
shall not agree amongst themselves, Then, and in that case the 
Presbyterie shall nominate twelve honest men within the bounds 
of the Presbyterie, who shall have power to establish a Schoole, 
modifie a stipend for the Schoole master, with the latitude before 
expressed, and set down a stent for payment thereof upon the 
Heritors, which shall be as valide and effectuall as if the same 
had been done by the Heritors themselves." -^ 

There is much in the spirit and direction of this educa- 
tional movement in Scotland which reminds one strongly of 
the parallel movement in Massachusetts, though there is 
but little in the wording of the Massachusetts act of 1647 
to recall the Scotch act of the preceding year. It would 
seem almost certain that the men of Massachusetts must 
have acted with full knowledge of what their fellow Calvin- 
ists of the north country were doing. Direct evidence of 
such knowledge may not be found ; but the close connec- 
tion of both the Scotch Presbyterians and the colonists of 
New England with the Puritan revolutionists of Old Eng- 
land, makes it altogether probable that each group was 
pretty well informed as to what the others were doing. 

The action of the civil power in Scotland, in the legisla- 
tion recorded above, went further in some respects than the 
Massachusetts enactment of 1647, and nearly as far in 
other respects ; but the antecedents and the specific provis- 
ions of the Scotch law show more of ecclesiastical connection 
than does the Massachusetts statute. It was not until the 
passage of the acts of 1693 and 1696 that a national system 
of education was really established in Scotland, and even 
those acts continued much of the earlier ecclesiastical par- 

1 Acts of the Parliavients of Scotland, II Febniarii 1646. Heport of Record 
Commission, VI., p. 216. 



COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 69 

ticipation in the management of the schools. The Massa- 
chusetts law, on the other hand, while pushing religious 
considerations to the front, addressed itself to the civil 
authorities, and made no reference to the churches nor to 
the clergy in connection with the school administration.^ 

But it was not to be expected that Massachusetts, in the 
seventeenth century, would bring into being a public school 
system in the modern sense of the term. Its education act 
was the act of a legislature elected by members of churches 
of a recognized faith and order ; a legislature which looked 
upon the furtherance of true religion as its highest end and 
aim.^^^he religious purpose was its chief concern in the pro- 
vision for schools, and the obligation to establish schools and 
maintain them was laid upon towns which were at the same 
time congregations. The public school systems of the nine- 
teenth and twentieth centuries are systems suited to a 
people of diverse religions, and they have grown up with 
the growth of religious difference. The Puritan fathers 
would have been horrified at the thought that their legisla- 
tion was preparing the way for any such thing. 

Yet it cannot be doubted that the germ of much of our 
later school legislation is to be found in the Massachusetts 
law of 1647. It was not a royal decree, but the act of the 
people of the colony, who took upon themselves the burden 
of providing a relatively expensive system of liberal educa- 
tion. However many ecclesiastical implications and con- 
nections it may have had, it was a civil act, such as might 
serve as a precedent in states differently constituted, and 
where the conditions of admission to the electoral body were 
not pitched so high. 

There is abundant evidence that it did serve as such 
precedent. In official documents and in private publications 
relating to education, east and west, north and south, all 

^ A comparative examination of the several education acts of the seven- 
teenth century would throw much light on the subject under consideration. 
Until such an inquiry can be made, any view of the part played by Massachu- 
setts in the general movement must be in a measure tentative. 



70 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

through the formative periods of our public education, the 
example of Massachusetts has been held up for emulation. 
It is doubtful whether there is any large section in the 
whole land where its influence has not been felt. Such 
being the case, it will be well to trace somewhat in detail 
the later colonial history of the Massachusetts system. 

Subsequent education acts in the colony and province 
followed the general lines laid down in the law of 1647. 
In 1654, the general court of the colony made it the 
special care of the overseers of the college and the select- 
men of the several towns to prevent the appointment or the 
continuance in office of teachers who " have mannifested 
themselves vnsound in the faith or scandalous in theire 
lines, and not giving due sattis faction according to the rules 
of Christ."! 

The meeting of the general court on the 12th of 
November, 1659, marks another epoch in our early educa- 
tional history. Individual grants of land, of two hundred 
acres each, were made for the relief of two schoolmasters, 
Daniel Weld and Elijah Corlett, out of consideration for 
" the vsefullnes of the peticoners in an imployment of so 
comon concernment for the good of the whole country, & 
the little incouragement that they have had from theire 
respective tonnes for theire service and vnwearied pajnes 
in that imployment." And grants of one thousand acres 
each were made to the towns of Charlestown, Cambridge, 
and Dorchester for the support of grammar schools.^ 

In 1671 the fine of five pounds imposed on towns of one 
hundred families for neglect to provide a grammar school 
was increased to ten pounds.^ This penalty was again in- 
creased, in 1683, to twenty pounds in the case of towns of 
two hundred families, and it was further provided at the 
same time that every town of more than five hundred 

1 Records of the governor and company, etc., IV., pt. 1, pp. 182-183. 

2 Id., IV., pt. 1, pp. 397-398, 400. 
8 Id., IV., pt. 2, p. 486. 



COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 71 

families should " set vp & maiiiteyne two gramar schooles 
and two wrighting schooles." ^ 

After the colony had become a royal province, the colonial 
school law was re-enacted, in substance, though somewhat 
modernized in wording. A grammar school was to be main- 
tained in every town of one hundred families, under penalty 
of ten pounds for each conviction.^ One half of the receipts 
from fines for the selling of liquors without license and for 
certain other offences, was devoted to the support of grammar 
or writing schools.^ The provision relating to the mainte- 
nance of grammar schools having been "shamefully neg- 
lected by divers towns," the penalty for non-observance was 
increased in 1701 to twenty pounds per annum. It was fur- 
ther provided that every grammar master must be approved 
by the minister of the town or the ministers of two adjacent 
towns, and hold a certificate to that effect ; and that the 
minister of a town should not serve as schoolmaster.* In 
1718, "by sad experience it is found that many towns that 
not only are obliged by law, but are very able to support a 
grammer school, yet choose rather to incurr and pay the fine 
or penalty than maintain a grammer school." A law of that 
date accordingly increases the fine to thirty pounds for every 
town of one hundred and fifty families, forty pounds for such 
as have two hundred families, and so "pro rato" (sic) for a 
town of two hundred and fifty or three hundred families.^ 

A new Massachusetts was by this time growing up, as the 
frontier settlements were pushed farther and farther into 
the interior. The new towns did not all take kindly to the 
compulsory maintenance of schools, and the older towns were 
not unanimous in their adherence to it. The legislature and 
the courts of the province had much to do, as the records 

1 Records of the governor and company, etc., V., pp. 414-415. 

2 Province laws, 1692-93, ch. 26, sect. 5, passed November 4, 1692. 

3 Id., 1700-01, ch. 8, sect. 6, passed June 29, 1700. Id., 1701-02, ch. 15, 
sect. 6, passed June 18, 1701. Id., 1702-03, ch. 4, sect. 5, passed March 27, 
1703. Id., 1703-04, ch. 5, sect. 5, passed July 31, 1703. 

* Id., 1701-02, ch. 10, passed June 28, 1701. 
6 Id., 1718-19, ch. 2, passed June 17, 1718. 



72 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

show, in the effort to make these independent-spirited 
Massachusetts communities live up to a law which was 
one of the chief glories of the commonwealth. 

The Massachusetts act of 1647 was copied almost verba- 
tim in the Connecticut code of 1650. After the union of 
the Connecticut and New Haven Colonies, the county in- 
stead of the town was made the territorial unit in the 
maintenance of grammar schools. In May, 1672, the 
general court granted each county town six hundred acres 
of land for the support of such a school, and later in the 
same year the requirement of a grammar school in each 
town of one hundred families was changed to one in each 
county town. From time to time various colony funds were 
voted to the support of these schools ; and a fine of ten 
pounds was imposed on any county town which should fail 
to comply with the law. It was on these lines that a 
general system of secondary schools was maintained in 
Connecticut throughout the remainder of the colonial 
period.^ 

New Hampshire was a part of Massachusetts when the 
law of 1647 was adopted, and for many years thereafter. 
When the separation took place, the northern colony con- 
tinued the same educational policy, in the face of all the 
obstacles to be met with on an exposed frontier in times, 
fretted with wars against the French and Indians. In 1719 
an act was passed which was in the main a reproduction of 
the original Massachusetts law, but the penalty for failure 
to maintain schools was increased from five to twenty 
pounds. Two years later, the selectmen of the towns were 
made individually liable for such failure. These laws were 
still in force at the time of the Revolution.^ 

Another powerful and pervasive spiritual force in the 
colonies, after Calvinism, was the doctrine and life of " the 
people called Quakers." Of especial significance in the his- 
tory of education was their doctrine of the inner light, and 

1 S TEINEK, Historij of education in Conncdicut, pp. ] 7-29. 

2 Bush, History of education in New Hampshire, pp. 9-13. 



COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 73 

their insistence upon the separation of church and state. 
Eevelation, for these people, was not brought to an end with 
the completion of the New Testament. It was continued in 
the spiritual illumination of each individual Christian. The 
Scriptures, then, though a true revelation and of the greatest 
value, were not the only guide of life. Such doctrine would 
lead some to lay great emphasis on the higher learning, but 
would lead all to give to learning the second place, while an 
enlightened conscience was held to be the principal thing. 
As early as the seventeenth century there was a spirited 
discussion of the question of " an educated ministry." And 
members of the society of Friends, quite consistently, took 
the ground that the education of the minister was a matter 
of secondary importance. It is not surprising that some 
members of this society went further, and developed a posi- 
tive opposition to education beyond the merest rudiments ; 
yet the more intelligent of their number manifested from 
the beginning a lively sense of the importance of schools of 
every grade, from the lowest to the highest. 

The Quakers made themselves felt at an early day in the 
life of the several colonies. George Fox came to America in 
1671 for an extended preaching tour. His followers were 
influential in the affairs of Maryland. William Penn was 
one of the company of Friends which for a time exercised 
proprietary rights over West Jersey ; and finally Quaker in- 
fluence in the colonies culminated in the magnificent grant 
which Penn received, in 1681, from Charles the Second. 

There is much that has a very modern sound in the Frame 
of Government which Penn drew up for his colony : Free- 
dom of religion (except for " Papists ") ; large powers granted 
to an elective legislature ; and intimately connected with 
these, a system of education under civil control. " The 
Governor and Provincial Council shall erect and order all 
public schools, and encourage and reward the authors of 
useful sciences and laudable inventions in the said prov- 
ince." And one of the committees into which the Provincial 
Council was divided for purposes of administration was "a 



74 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

committee of manners, education, and arts, that all wicked 
and scandalous living may be prevented, and that youth may 
be successively trained up in virtue and useful knowledge 
and arts." ^ 

Penn's first legislature (1682) confirmed his Frame of 
Government and passed the " Great Body of Laws." One 
of these statutes provided that the laws of the province 
should be taught in the schools of the province. The second 
legislature, meeting March 10, 1683, passed a bill requiring 
parents and guardians to have their children instructed in 
reading and writing and " taught some useful trade or skill, 
that the poor may work to live, and the rich, if they become 
poor, may not want." Some months later, the Governor and 
Council engaged Enoch Flower to teach reading, writing, and 
casting accounts, in Philadelphia.^ 

Thus far we find the provincial government taking very 
advanced ground in the matter of public control of educa- 
tion. The new frame of government adopted in 1696, after 
the brief term of royal administration, renewed the educa- 
tional provision of the frame of 1682. Then a retrograde 
movement began. Penn's final frame of government, pre- 
sented in 1701, omitted entirely the earlier provision for 
education. The attempt was now made to provide for public 
instruction through the agency of the several religious 
denominations in the province. The Charter School at 
Philadelphia was first put under the control of one of the 
" meetings " of the Society of Friends. In its final organiza- 
tion it was a privately managed institution, without formal 
responsibility either to a sect or to the provincial govern- 
ment. The overseers of this institution were empowered 
to set up a general system of schools for the city and county 
of Philadelphia. After some difficulty, caused by the opposi- 
tion of the British government, an act of the provincial 
legislature was finally put in force, empowering religious 
denominations to establish and maintain schools. So the 

1 Clews, op. cit., pp. 278-279. 
« Id., pp. 280-282. 



COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 75 

early movement toward a system of public education under 
civil control in Pennsylvania came to an end. If ever the 
inner history of this effort shall be written, it must prove 
highly interesting and instructive. 

The mixture of civil, ecclesiastical, and private agency in 
the system of education proposed for Maryland by the act 
of 1696, invites examination. What we see at first glance is 
this : A colony which has just set up a qtiasi establishment 
of the Church of England within its territory, proceeds, by 
act of legislature, to provide for public education ; and this 
it does by erecting a corporation, private in form, but in 
some sort of co-operation with the highest dignitaries of 
the English Church, charged with the establishment and 
administration of schools in the several counties, the officers 
of government making individual contributions to the 
support of the undertaking. The notable fact, so far as our 
present discussion is concerned, is that the really decisive 
action in Maryland was that taken by the civil power. 
Miss Clews remarks that "The step from a government 
church to government schools was short." It must be 
remembered, however, that this short step was important, 
for it was taken at a time when in the world at large a 
church under the episcopal form of administration was 
apparently incompatible with a system of government 
schools. 

We have here another of those passages in the history of 
American education which offer promising topics for special 
investigation. Some Calvinistic influence may have been 
felt in the movement,^ and the example of the New England 
colonies doubtless had some weight. There was, moreover, 
a strong contingent of Quakers in Maryland. The educa- 

1 In the early days of the colony, Father Henry More, in transmitting to 
Rome the "twenty cases " submitted to him by the Jesuit missionary Father 
White, made the following comment : " In leading the colony to Maryland, by 
far the greater part were heretics, also the country itself, a meridie Virginiae 
ah Aquilone, ia esteemed to be a New England, that is, two provinces full of 
English Calvinists and Puritans." Quoted by Gambrai.l, Civil, social and 
ecclesiastical history of early Maryland, p. 228. 



76 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

tional movement in Pennsylvania must have been felt there. 
In a new country, among a people much divided in their 
religious affiliations, where there was but little accumulated 
wealth, high educational aspirations could be realized only 
through the co-operation of many forces. Governor Nichol- 
son's personal influence was powerful, and he seems to have 
been sufficiently desirous of seeing schools established to be 
willing to employ any fair means which might be available 
for the attainment of that end. It seems likely that this 
was the determining factor in the case. 

The matter was the occasion of much wrangling both 
before and after the passage of the act of 1696. The grow- 
ing demand for opportunities of advancement for American- 
born youth in the public service, was emphasized in this 
discussion. The bill was in all likelihood a compromise. 
It is clear that especial pains were taken to keep the new 
system in close relations with the English Church. Even 
so the act seems to mark another of the early stages in the 
development of that participation of the civil power in 
affairs of public education which eventuated in the school 
systems of the past fifty years. 

The act of 1696, as previously stated, failed to secure the 
establishment of any but the King William school. But it 
led to later legislation which was more effective. Various 
duties were imposed from time to time for the benefit of 
free schools — on imported negroes and on exports of tobacco, 
pork, tar, etc. Then, in 1723, a new act was passed, provid- 
ing again for one free school in each of the twelve counties 
of the colony. A separate board of seven visitors was 
erected for each of these schools. Each board was required 
to purchase one hundred acres of land, to be turned over to 
the use of the schoolmaster, together with a house for his 
residence and for the school; and to pay the master in 
addition a salary of twenty pounds a year. The master 
must be an adherent of the Church of England.^ The 

1 The text of this law, as well as of the act of 1696, may be found in 
Clews, Educational legislation and administration. 



COLONIAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS 77 

colony was evidently in earnest in this matter, and the 
schools contemplated in the law were generally established ; 
but there are indications in the course of subsequent legisla- 
tion that great difficulty was met with in the attempt to 
hold them up to even a moderate standard of efficiency. 

The four colonies, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
Hampshire, and Maryland, bravely kept up some sort of 
colonial system of education down to the time of separation 
from the mother country. The schools were " free schools " 
in intention. In theory, if not always in practice, they 
offered instruction in Latin, and pointed forward to the 
higher education. For the last fifty years of the period, for 
reasons which will be considered further on, the chariot 
drave heavily. It was not simply that the colonies were 
degenerating intellectually. New times had come, and with 
them the need of a new education and new educational 
institutions. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

There is need of compact histories, in English, of the chief educational 
systems of continental Europe, and of Scotland and England. One finds, 
moreover, a great dearth of source-books, such as would make possible a 
full and reliable comparison of the development of those systems vrith that 
of our own. 

Eor Holland we have tlie scattered items of information in the writings 
of Motley and of Matthew Aknold, in Cousin's famous report, in 
De Witt's Introduction to Dunshee, School of the Reformed Protestant 
Dutch Church, in Plugge, Education in the Netherlands (Circ. Inf., 
no. 2, 1877), and in Nussbaum, Education in the Netherlands (Rept. 
Comr. Ed., 1894-95, p. 475 ff.). The articles on education adopted 
by the Synod of Dort arc given in English translation in De Witt's 
Introduction. 

For Scotland we have two important works : 

Edgar, John. History of early Scottish education. Edinburgh, 1893. 
Pp. 12 + 333 ; and 

Grant, James. History of the burgh and parish schools of Scotland. 
London, 1876. I., pp. 16 + 571. 



78 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

There is mucli information packed in this little pamphlet : 

Gordon, The Rev. A. L. The system of national education in Scotland ; 
its origin, its nature, and results. Being the substance of a report of 
a committee of the Synod of Aberdeen, ordered by the Synod to be pub- 
lished. With notes and illustrations. Aberdeen, 1839. Pp. 59. 

For colonial systems, the works consulted have already been referred to 
under Chapter III. 



CHAPTER V 

LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 

The seventeenth century was marked by several stages of 
colonial development, corresponding to rather sharply defined 
epochs in the history of the mother country. The violent 
changes which characterized that age left their impress on 
colonial society, and affected the course of colonial education. 
These successive stages cannot, however, be considered in 
detail in such a work as this. But the contrast between the 
earlier and the later colonial times is too great to be over- 
looked, since it brings to view some of the strongest under- 
currents in our educational history. The second great 
division of our colonial period will accordingly receive 
separate consideration in this chapter. 

As a matter of convenience, we may regard this second 
division as covering the whole of the eighteenth century, 
down to the Revolution. It is hardly necessary to say that 
the new century did not at once set up a new order of 
things. But the reign of William and Mary settled many dis- 
putes that had vexed the seventeenth century : and the reign 
of Queen Anne carries us well over into the age of outward 
calm ; the Augustan age, with its common sense ; the age of 
Bolingbroke and of Walpole and of all those others who 
like them depised enthusiasm. Down under the crust of 
that age new enthusiasms were moving which the world 
must reckon with further on. The fire that had gone out of 
the familiar institutions was at work elsewhere, with no 
diminution of creative energy. 

The colonies in this time were coming to be colonial. 
Their inhabitants ceased to be Englishmen away from home, 



80 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

and became thoroughly proviuciah Their intercourse with 
the mother country was very different from that known to 
their grandfathers, when the spirit of adventure or zeal for 
religion brought men of first-rate character and ability to 
America, and Americans found places of honor and respon- 
sibility awaiting them when they returned to England. The 
lament was often heard in the eighteenth century that the 
high character of the early colonists had not been main- 
tained by their descendants. Such croaking, to be sure, is 
one of the luxuries of the lookers-backward in every age. 
But there can be no doubt that in this instance it was justi- 
fied. Learning, along with much else that was good, had, in 
spite of all pains, been buried in the graves of the fore- 
fathers. 

We can see now that in becoming provincial the colonists 
were simply getting ready to become American. Tor the 
student of history, this period is full of interest, for the 
reason that in its provincialism he can trace some of 
the beginnings of the American character. 

Men filled with the love of adventure were slowly push- 
ing the frontier back from the coast. There were already 
considerable stretches of country given over to peaceful 
industry and safe from invasion by the Indians. In spite 
of trade restrictions, the colonists were finding out for them- 
selves various lines of profitable employment. Moderate 
fortunes were made ; and in the cities of the north and on 
the plantations of the south a varied and interesting social 
life was developing. Printing presses were at work, news- 
papers came to be widely read, and affairs of public interest 
brought out a spirited pamphlet literature in America as in 
England. 

Of the greatest significance in its bearing upon education 
was the ecclesiastical character of .the several colonies. At 
the accession of William and Mary, we find some sort of 
experiment in religious freedom going on in Maryland, in 
Pennsylvania, and notably in Ehode Island ; Congregational- 
ism of different types is established in Massachusetts and 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 81 

Connecticut ; while tlie Church of England is officially- 
recognized in Virginia and the Carolinas. In the other col- 
onies, and to a less degree in some of those just enumerated, 
affairs ecclesiastical appear in a mixed and uncertain state, 
confusing enough to the student of our early history. 

Such were the conditions that obtained at the opening of 
the English era of toleration. From that time on we may 
observe the working of two divergent tendencies. The 
Church of England was roused to greater interest in the 
American colonies, and entered upon extensive missionary 
operations on this side of the Atlantic. Anglican influence 
in the colonies was increased. Some sort of establishment, 
after the English pattern, was set up, under the patronage 
of royal governors, in New York and Maryland. And 
notable Episcopalian gains were made in the very centers 
of New England Congregationalism. At first glance it would 
seem that the dominant tendency of the time ran toward 
established Episcopalianism. 

But many influences were making toward religious diver- 
sity and its natural accompaniment, religious equality. 
Such '^colonial establishments as there were can hardly be 
compared to the union of church and state then existing in 
the mother country. Even in the Puritan colonies, at an 
early day, the hard and fast connection of the civil with the 
ecclesiastical power had begun to loosen. This movement 
toward separation went on slowly during the eighteenth 
century. Along with it may be traced the growth of that 
positive civic and secular spirit which was so strongly marked 
during the Revolutionary period. 

There were certain definite manifestations of these two 
tendencies — toward established Episcopalianism on the one 
hand and toward religious diversity and religious equality 
on the other — which must be briefly considered because of 
their bearing upon educational movements. And first of 
these, the activities of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts. 

The founding of William and Mary College, in 1693, was 

6 



82 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

one of the earliest indications of the new interest which the 
leaders of the English Church were taking in the colonies. 
Closely connected with this was the appointment of the two 
famous Commissaries of the Bishop of London in this 
country, the Eev. James Blair in Virginia and the Rev. 
Thomas Bray in Maryland. Dr. Blair is a most militant 
and interesting figure in the history of the colonial church. 
No man did more than he to secure the establishment of the 
college in Virginia ; and he was at the head of that institu- 
tion down to the time of his death in 1743. 

Thomas Bray, if less picturesque, was no less worthy. We 
find him, before quitting England, using his utmost endeavors 
to secure libraries for the use of the clergy in the several 
parishes of Maryland. " It is Ignorance," he said in a 
sermon on colonial missions, " which is the Natural Parent 
of that Atheism and Infidelity so rife amongst Men ; and 
indeed, not only of that, but of all other Vices and Wicked- 
nesses whatsoever." He reminded his hearers " that we can- 
not now work Miracles, and that Inspiration is no part of 
our Talent; but that we are left to the Ordinary means 
of Converting the World ; namely, the Common Measures 
of God's Holy Spirit accompanying our hard Study." 

It was chiefly due to the devotion and persistence of Dr. 
Bray that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was 
organized, by English churchmen, in 1701. This Society 
immediately undertook a vigorous campaign for the exten- 
sion of Anglican Christianity in the several American colo- 
nies. George Keith, the first master of the Friends' Public 
School in Philadelphia, who had now conformed to the Eng- 
lish Church, was the first of its missionaries. He travelled 
all over the colonies in the discharge of his duties, and started 
a considerable movement toward Episcopalianism. 

The chief concern of the Society was the maintenance 
of ministers in colonial parishes. At the outbreak of the 
Eevolutionary war it was helping to support seventy-seven 
missionaries in the region then in revolt. But next after 
churches, the Society was concerned in the establishment of 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 83 

schools. These were mostly of elementary grade. But when 
our second Episcopalian college ^ was projected the Society 
furthered the movement, and gave it substantial support. 
The authorities of the English Church required of candidates 
for holy orders that they should have had the training of a 
college course. In this there was full agreement between 
them and the Congregationalists of New England. It was 
an attitude which gave countenance and encouragement to 
the higher education, for which the Latin grammar school 
furnished the indispensable preparation. The operations of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, accordingly, 
furthered indirectly the grammar school movement ; and in 
some instances grammar schools would seem to have received 
aid from the treasury of the Society.^ 

It was the great hope and aim of this Society to secure 
the establishment of an American episcopate. Such a con- 
summation had long been desired and sought by the digni- 
taries of the English Church. As far back as 1638, 
Archbishop Laud had exerted himself to have a bishop 
sent to New England. But this project met with deter- 
mined opposition on both sides of the water, not only in the 
time of Laud, but whenever it was broached in later days. 
It is difficult for us to understand the intensity of the feeling 
which this proposal aroused. It was not that men objected 
to an episcopal form of church government, though many 
were opposed on principle to such a system. It was much 
more that men dreaded the power residing in an English 
bishop to enforce conformity ; and could not forget how 
oppressively that power had been exercised. One had only 
to mention the name of Laud to arouse hostility and dread.^ 

^ King's College, now Columbia University, established in 1754. 

2 The elementary school of Trinity Church, in New York, which received 
aid from the Society, still lives, and has become a flourishing secondary school. 

Anglican influence at its finest and best appeared with the coming of George 
Berkelej' to the colonies. The good bishop's visit must always be counted 
among the happiest occurrences in the history of our colonial education. 

^ " It was difiicult for these [New England Puritans and North-of-Ireland 
Presbyterians], and it would have been even more difficult for the new digiii- 



84 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

So it came about that the growing success of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel aroused grave apprehension in 
many minds. And in the fifties and sixties of the eighteenth 
century, this found expression in a heated controversy. In- 
dependence came before a trans-Atlantic episcopate could be 
secured ; and the discussion which the movement stirred up 
was, as Moses Coit Tyler has remarked, " one of the chief 
secondary causes of the American Kevolution." 

The " Venerable Society," then, while working for unity 
in established Episcopalianism, unintentionally sharpened 
existing differences and strengthened the demand for re- 
ligious freedom. But other forces were working more power- 
fully in the same direction. There had been abundant 
variety in the religious character of the earlier settlements. 
But variation went much further in the eighteenth century. 
At the first, America had been a land of promise for the 
oppressed, because of the opportunity it. offered of founding 
new commonwealths for people of this or that religion. 
Now the idea of religious equality was getting abroad, and 
America was looked upon as a land in which the oppressed 
might find shelter under governments, already established, 
which welcomed all comers. 

Various sects, mostly German, emigrated in great numbers 
to Pennsylvania. European Baptists settled in the Caro- 
linas, making a beginning of that Baptist influence which 
has been so powerful in the south to this day. Huguenots 
poured into that southern country after the revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes, and their descendants have held a high 
place in our history. 

Most significant of all from the point of view of education 

taries, in colonial days, to understand how bishops could be anything but lord 
bishops." Bacon, History of American Christianity, pp. 206-207. Cf. the 
passage of similar import in Tiffany, Hisfonj of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the United States, p. 277. Jolm Adams said that, "the objection 
was not only to the office of a bishop, though that was dreaded, but to the 
authority of Parliament on which it must be founded." Id., p. 275. It can 
hardly be doubted that an American episcopate would have given a different 
direction, for a time at least, to American education. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 85 

was the influx of Presbyterians from the north of Ireland. 
This immigration began about the year 1718 and continued 
for many years thereafter, being reinforced later by a sim- 
ilar movement from Scotland. Popular education was as an 
article of the faith with these people, and their reverence for 
an educated ministry made them lay the strongest emphasis 
upon the traditional college training. Their experience with 
the established Protestantism of Ireland had formed in them 
a fixed attitude of opposition toward the Anglican system. 
Many of them disapproved as well of the established Presby- 
terianism of Scotland, and they were ready material for a 
party of opposition to church establishments as such in this 
country. They spread out over all the colonies, becoming 
especially strong in the highlands of the middle and southern 
states. 

To recall these familiar facts is to get the merest hint of 
that diversification of faiths and peoples which was going on 
in the colonies. The different elements were becoming more 
thoroughly mixed together in the eighteenth century than 
they had been before. One of the missionaries of the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel described what he found 
as a "hotch-potch of religions." The time was favorable for 
a great religious movement which should sweep over this 
motley company, firing the hearts of men with a new sense 
of unity, and making new party divisions, marked with new 
party-spirit. Such a movement came in that tremendous 
religious revival known as the Great Awakening. In its 
progress and in its results, religious, political, and educa- 
tional, this movement reminds one in some measure of that 
set going by the Preaching Friars, in the thirteenth century. 

There was much that led up to the awakening on both 
sides of the Atlantic. Such revivals, on a smaller scale, had 
not been uncommon in Puritan congregations. The Quakers 
and Anabaptists of the seventeenth century had, perhaps, 
prepared the way by their teaching and preaching. The 
Pietists in Germany at the end of the seventeenth century, 
under the lead of Spener and Francke, had spread abroad a 



86 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

view of the religious life which was favorable to such move- 
ments. Count Zinzendorf at Herrnhut had brought the 
Moravians into close touch with this pietism. Many of Zin- 
zendorf s people had come to Pennsylvania, and their Count- 
bishop came himself to visit them. England felt the influ- 
ence of what was going on in Germany, and by the year 
1740 had her own Methodist revival under way, led by 
Whitefield and the Wesleys. 

Just when and how the colonial awakening began it 
would be hard to say. But there was a great religious 
revival at Northampton, Massachusetts, under the preaching 
of Jonathan Edwards, which was in full progress in 1734, 
and rose to great intensity and fervor in the following 
year. Similar revivals took place in Xew Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania, under the lead of Domine Erelinghuysen and 
Jonathan Dickinson and Samuel Blair, and the Tennents, 
father and sons. This was in the years 1739-40. In 1738, 
George Whitefield, one of the greatest pulpit orators in the 
history of the Christian church, came from England and 
began that marvellous series of colonial preaching tours, 
which ended only with his death. Wherever he went there 
was excitement, disturbance, division — anything but spirit- 
ual stagnation. And a great number of irregular, itinerant 
preachers followed after him, who gathered their congrega- 
tions in the churches or in the fields indifferently, and called 
men everywhere to repentance. 

The most contradictory views of these things were held 
at the time of their occurrence. Jonathan Edwards de- 
clared that "Multitudes in all parts have had their con- 
sciences awakened, and . . . there is a great alteration amongst 
old and young as to drinking, tavern haunting, profane speak- 
ing, and extravagance in apparel. ... In very many places the 
main of the conversation in all companies turns on religion, 
and things of a spiritual nature." " Satan, the old inhabitant, 
seems to exert himself, like a serpent disturbed and en- 
raged." ^ Benjamin Franklin remarked, in his autobiography, 
1 Edwards On revivals, pp. 52, 154-159. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 87 

" It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the 
manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless and 
indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were 
growing religious."-^ On the other hand, the Presbyterian 
Synod of Philadelphia, which had been rent by dissensions 
resulting from the revival, published a "Protestation" in 
which the preachers of the awakening were censured for 
" preaching the Terrors of the Law in such manner and 
Dialect as has no Precedent in the Word of God, but rather 
appears to be borrowed from a worse Dialect; and so in- 
dustriously working on the Passions and Affections of weak 
Minds, as to cause them to cry out in a hideous Manner, 
and fall down in Convulsion-like Fits . . . and then after 
all, boasting of these Things as the Work of God, which 
we are persuaded do proceed from an inferior or worse 
Cause." 2 

With education so intimately bound up with religion as 
we know it to have been in those days, such a movement as 
the Great Awakening could not fail to have a mighty influ- 
ence on the development of schools. The Episcopalian mis- 
sionary movement affected education, but chiefly in the way 
of quickening activity along the familiar lines. The awak- 
ening, on the other hand, tended to the undoing of old forms 
and the making of new types. 

This educational influence may be seen in many instances 
working directly, in the establishment of schools by reli- 
gious bodies and for ends immediately connected with the 
spirit of the revival. But in a larger way, it worked through 
social changes which the revival furthered or brought about. 
For the Great Awakening, like the Methodist movement 
in England, had much to do with the rise of the common 
people. As it affected American theology by turning it in 
the direction of such doctrines as could be most effectively 
preached from the pulpit,^ and affected American politics 

1 Op. cit., edited by Bigelow, p. 267. 

2 Protestation to the Synod, p. 11. 

* Cf. Bacon, History of American Christianity, pp. 374-375. 



88 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

by quickening the growth of democracy ,i so it affected 
education by giving the people a new interest in schools 
above the elementary grade, and by promoting the establish- 
ment of such schools as would answer to this interest. 

" The great God has wrought like himself," wrote Jona- 
than Edwards, " in pouring out his spirit chiefly on the com- 
mon people. . . . He has made use of the weak and foolish 
things of the world to carry on his work. The ministers 
that have been chiefly improved, some of them have been 
mere babes in age and standing, and some of them such as 
have not been so high in reputation among their fellows as 
many others." ^ He proposed that, for the furthering of the 
ends sought by the men of the Great Awakening, schools 
should be endowed, " which might be done on such a foun- 
dation, as not only to bring up children in common learning, 
but also, might very much tend to their conviction and con- 
version, and being trained up in vital piety." ^ Even before 
the awakening, a notable school of this sort had been estab- 
lished, which had a numerous offspring. This was the 
"Log College" of the Eev. William Tennent. 

Whitefield wrote of this school in one of his journals, " Set 
out for Neshaminy, 20 miles distant from Trent-Town, 
where old Mr. Tennent lives, and keeps an Academy. ... It 
happened very providentially that Mr. Tennent and his 
Brethern are appointed to be a Presbytery, by the Synod ; 
so that they intend Breeding up gracious Youths, and send- 
ing them out, from time to time, into our Lord's Vine- 
yard. — The Place wherein the young Men study now, is, in 
Contempt, called, The College : It is a Log-house, about 
20 Foot long, and near as many broad ; and to me" it 
seemed to resemble the School of the old Prophets. . . . 
From this despised Place, seven or eight worthy ministers of 
Jesus have lately been sent forth ; more are almost ready 

^ Cf. Eggleston, Transit of civilization, p. 168, 

2 Edwards On revivals, pp. 119-120. (From Thoughts on the revival of 
religion in New Eyigland.) 
8 Op. cit., p. 393. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 89 

to be sent ; and a Foundation is now Laying for the instruc- 
tion of many others." ^ 

Mr. Tennent was a North-of-Ireland man, who had 
entered upon his pastorate at Neshaminy, and established 
his school there, about the year 1726. Numerous schools 
were opened in the middle and southern states, within the 
next few years, by Presbyterian ministers who had been 
trained in Mr. Tennent's " academy," and by others in imi- 
tation of such example. The term " log college," came to be 
used as a generic designation of any school of this sort. 
Mr. Tennent had sons who were ministers, and the eldest 
of them, Gilbert Tennent, was one of the most celebrated of 
the revival preachers who followed in the wake of George 
Whitefield. The Log College men threw themselves, heart 
and soul, into the revival movement ; and one of the most 
significant controversies growing out of that movement was 
that in which their presbytery became involved with the 
Synod of Philadelphia. 

The question at issue was that of the requirement of a 
college training of candidates for ordination. It was not 
the first time nor the last that this question arose. It had 
come up for discussion in the preceding century. At a 
later time, when the area of settlement was rapidly enlarg- 
ing in the west, it became increasingly difficult of answer. 
At the time of the awakening, when colleges were still 
chiefly for the training of ministers, and secondary schools 
chiefly preparatory to such colleges, the question was a vital 
one in its bearing on the development of both secondary 
and higher education. 

The Synod of Philadelphia stood for the traditional require- 
ment. The presbytery would have promising candidates 
ordained though they should offer only the incomplete 
preparation provided by the Log College. The two parties 
failed to come to an agreement, and a separation resulted, 
after the good old Presbyterian fashion. The affair ran a 

1 A continuation of the Reverend Mr. Whitefield' s Journal, etc., II., pp. 
143-144. The date is November 22, 1739. 



90 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

devious course, which would be long in the telling. But 
it eventuated in the establishment of the College of New 
Jersey, now Princeton University, by men of the awaken- 
ing, an important part in the enterprise being borne by 
some who were not distinctively of the Log College party.^ 

The College of New Jersey became a spiritual centre to 
which the classical schools set up by Presbyterian minis- 
ters here and there were tributary. The college stimulated 
the schools ; and when its graduates went forth, they went 
as missionaries of education as well as of religion. After 
the middle of the eighteenth century, accordingly, the 
Princeton influence was a force to be counted on in the 
extension of secondary instruction. 

With this introduction we may now enter upon a more 
particular survey of the state of secondary education dur- 
ing this period in the several colonies. While many in- 
fluences were at work, industrial, commercial, political, the 
two new currents which most obviously directed the course 
of that education were those which have been described : 
the new colonial activity of the Church of England, and the 
whole set of tendencies which culminated in the Great 
Awakening. Generally speaking, the first of these was con- 
servative, and the second made for change. Already there 
was a settled tradition of education in the Puritan colonies, 
and this made a second conservative element. Despite all 
differences, the religious and educational influence of the 
Puritans and that of the Anglicans often set in the same 
direction. 

We shall see later how the two tendencies, the Puritan- 
Anglican and the New Light were interacting to produce 
what was, perhaps, the first really American type of school, 
the American academy. But the real academy belongs to 
the earlier years of independence; and for the present we 
need concern ourselves only to see what was actually doing 
in the educational affairs of the several colonies down to 

^ Alexander, The Log College. Maclean, History of tlie College of New 
Jersey, 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 91 

the time of the Kevolution. This survey must necessarily 
be brief, supplementing general statements with a few typi- 
cal or remarkable instances. 

On the whole, the grammar schools of the earlier type 
were slowly declining. Their " decay " is spoken of as early 
as the beginning of the eighteenth century. In New 
Hampshire, the laws relating to the support of grammar 
schools were revised from time to time, in the direction of 
greater strictness. The advent of Scotch-Irish settlers, near 
the end of the first quarter of the century, tended to 
strengthen the educational spirit of the province. Under a 
provision embodied in an act of 1719, towns might apply, in 
case of need, for relief from the legal requirements relative 
to the sujDport of schools. As the century advanced and 
the burdens of war with the French and Indians came to 
be severely felt, some towns availed themselves of this pro- 
vision, or neglected the maintenance of schools without 
regard to formal dispensation.^ 

It was a bold step that was taken by the makers of Dart- 
mouth College — and a step of great significance in the 
later educational history of the state — when they pro- 
ceeded, in 1769, to set up their institution for the education 
of both white men and Indians, in the heart of what was 
then the western wilderness. The rise of this institution 
was intimately connected, through President Eleazar Wheel- 
ock, with the general movement of the awakening.^ 

In Massachusetts, though the penalty for neglect was 
repeatedly increased, the records show that grand juries 
were still hard put-to to enforce observance of the law for 
grammar schools. Lieutenant-Governor William Dummer, 
who died in 1761, bequeathed his dwelling-house and farm 
of nearly three hundred acres, in By field parish, Newbury, 
for the establishment of a grammar school. This was a 
notable act in more ways than one. It broke away from 
the tradition of local and public provision for education, 

1 WiNTERBOTHAM, Vieio, etc., II., pp. 119-120. 

2 Bu.SH, History of echication in New Hampshire, passim. 



92 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

which had been prevalent in Massachusetts from the earliest 
days. It was not the first departure from that tradition, 
to be sure ; ^ but coming when it did, it heralded a new 
movement. 

There was much fumbling in the external management 
of this school during the first years of its existence, which 
hints at a painful adjustment to changing notions of school 
administration. But under the first master, Samuel Moody, 
there was no uncertainty in its internal management. He 
made it a grammar school of the olden type, strictly devoted 
to the business of preparing boys for college. Among the 
boys whom he sent to Harvard was Samuel Phillips, who 
became the prime mover in the establishment of the Phillips 
Academy at Andover. After this later institution had 
inaugurated the academy movement in Massachusetts, the 
Dummer school was transformed into the Dummer Acad- 
emy, receiving an act of incorporation in 1782.^ 

In Connecticut, one characteristic outcome of the Great 
Awakening is recorded. Some enthusiastic New Lights 
established, at New London, an institution which was 
known as the " Shepherd's Tent." This was intended as a 
training school for future ministers, exhorters, and teachers. 
But the colonial legislature, under Old Light domination, 
was zealous for the established education as well as for the 
established religion ; and a strict enactment was passed for- 
bidding any one to conduct any sort of public school, other 
than those provided for by law, without legislative 
permission.^ This act, passed in 1742, was to continue in 
force for a period of four years. With the growth of New 
Light influence in the colony, we see signs of a growing 
hospitality toward educational experiments. 

Steps were taken from time to time to provide for the 
education of the Indians within the jurisdiction of Con- 

1 The grammar school at HacUey, at least, was neither local nor public 
according to any close definition of the terms. 

2 Cleaveland, Centennial address. 

s Public records of Connecticut, YIII., pp. 500-502. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 93 

necticut. The most notable undertaking of this sort was 
the Moor's Indian Charity School, conducted by the Kev. 
Eleazar Wheelock. Dr. Wheelock was one of the most 
eloquent preachers of the Great Awakening. He became 
pastor of a church in Lebanon in 1735, and like many other 
ministers of that day received boys into his family for classi- 
cal instruction. After a time a school grew up under his care, 
to which a number of Indian youth were admitted. Among 
these were Samson Occum, who became a powerful preacher, 
and was listened to with marked attention even in Old Eng- 
land ; and Joseph Brant, who achieved a less worthy notoriety 
during the Eevolutionary War. Joshua Moor bequeathed to 
this school a house and lands, and from him it took its 
name.^ A few years before the Kevolution it reappeared in 
New Hampshire, where it gave rise to a higher and broader 
institution, under the honorable designation of Dartmouth 
College. 

An important school was established at Lebanon in 1743, 
by Governor Trumbull, over which Nathan Tisdale presided 
for thirty years and more. Both the sons and the daughters 
of the Governor attended this school, and it drew other 
students from far and near. Just before the Eevolution, in 
1774, the " Union School of New London " was incorporated. 
Both of these institutions were virtually early academies, 
though not designated as such.^ 

The province of New York seems to have been without 
a grammar school at the beginning of the century. On the 
recommendation of Governor Cornbury, an act was passed 
in 1702, providing that, for the term of seven years, fifty 
pounds be raised annually by taxation for the support of a 
grammar school master, in the city of New York. This tax 
was to be levied in the same manner as that for the support 
of a minister. The master must be licensed by the Bishop 
of London, or by the Governor or commander-in-chief of the 

^ There is an interesting account of this school, by a former pupil, in the 
Diary of David McClurc, pp. 6-8. 

2 Steinee, Education in Connecticut, pp. 31-34. 



94 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

province. This bill was not passed without much haggling 
over its provisions. George Muirson seems to have been 
master of the school for which it provided, in 1704-05. It 
is not clear that it was in operation either before or after 
his incumbency. 

Another New York school which presents many points 
of interest was established in 1732, by act of the provincial 
legislature. Certain moneys coming in from the licensing 
of hawkers and pedlers were set aside for the encouragement 
of the master, to the amount of forty pounds per annum. 
And a like amount, " Currant Money of this Colony," was 
assessed in the same manner as that devoted to the support 
of the ministry. The condition of these grants was that 
twenty youths from various parts of the province should be 
taught gratis. Mr. Alexander Malcolm, who had been keep- 
ing a private school, was named in the act as the first master. 
The school was set up " to teach Latin, Greek, and all the 
Parts of Mathematicks." Mr. Malcolm announced that under 
the last-named head he gave instruction in geometry, algebra, 
geography, navigation, and " Merchants Book-keeping," and 
that, inasmuch as " the younger Scholars at this School are 
in hazard of losing their Writing, through the loss of Time 
and Diversion, occasioned by their going from one School to 
another," he would teach writing to such of his Latin schol- 
ars as thought fit to employ him. ^ 

This school was confirmed and continued by a second act 
of the legislature, which expired in 1738 by limitation. The 
school is said to have been continued after that time and 
to have formed the germ of Columbia College. But the 
evidence on these points is not clear. 

In 1753, one number ^ of the Independent Reflector was 
devoted to a discussion of the need of grammar schools in 
the colony. " We are not only surpassed," so the paper 

1 The documeutary history of these schools is given by Pratt, Annals 
of public education. Eighty-third report of the Regents, pp. 632-643, 672- 
687. 

2 The Independent Reflector, no. 50, November 8, 1753. The writer was 
in all probability William Livingston. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 95 

reads, "by several of our JSTeighbors, who have long since 
erected Colleges for publick instruction, but by all others, 
even in common Schools ; of which I have heard it lamented, 
that we have scarce ever had a good One in the Province. 
It is true, we had a Law which declared in its Preamble, 
that the Youth of this Province, were not inferior in their 
Geniusses to those of any other Country ; But against this 
it is to be observed, that the Law is long since expired, and 
probably our natural Ingenuity abated, and even tho' this 
was not the Case, I can by no Means agree, that the natural 
Fertility of our Geniusses, is a sufficient Eeason for the 
total Neglect of their Cultivation." 

The writer proposes that two grammar schools be set up 
in each county, under public control, and that fifty pounds 
a year be raised annually by taxation for the support of each 
of the masters. These schools should prepare boys for en- 
trance into the new college of the colony, which could not 
be done properly in a less period than four years. It is 
especially urged that no grammar school be erected within 
the college, such a proceeding being contrary to all the tra- 
ditions of colleges and universities. This proposal, however, 
came to nothing ; and a grammar school was opened in 
connection with King's College, in 1763, which was for 
many years one of the foremost classical schools of the 
middle states.^ 

The early secondary schools of New Jersey were largely 
an outgrowth of the Great Awakening. Dr. Jonathan Dick- 
inson had a classical school at Elizabethtown previous to 
1745, and about the same time the Eev. Aaron Burr con- 
ducted a similar school at Newark. These schools were 
among the forerunners of Princeton College, of which insti- 
tution Dickinson and Burr were successively president. The 
grammar school connected with the college played an impor- 
tant part in the early secondary education of the colony. A 
Baptist school was opened at Hopewell in 1756. Ten years 
later an important grammar school was established by two 
1 Moore, Historical sketch of Columbia College, pp. 52, 66, 89, 97. 



96 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

schoolmasters in partnership at Elizabethtown. Washing- 
ton Academy, at Hackensack, was established in 1769, 
probably as consolation to that community for the outcome 
of the controversy with reference to the location of Eutgers 
College, in which New Brunswick had won and Hackensack 
had lost.^ 

In South Carolina, perhaps more than any other colony, 
it was the prevalent practice of the planters to send their 
sons to England for an education. Here, as in Virginia, 
the development of schools was retarded by the scattering 
of the people on large plantations ; and the character of 
such schools as were opened was largely influenced by 
the establishment of the English Church in the colony, and 
by the missionary activity of the Society for tbe Propagation 
of the Gospel. There seems to have been no provision for 
schools previous to 1710. In that year the legislature 
passed " An act for the founding and erecting of a free 
school, for the use of the inhabitants of South Carolina." 
This act set up a corporation empowered to receive gifts 
and legacies and administer the same for a colony free 
school. Several bequests for this purpose had already been 
made. The " preceptor and teacher of grammar and other 
arts and sciences " in this school must be a conforming 
member of the Church of England, and " capable to teach 
the learned languages, that is to say, the Latin and Greek 
tongues, and also the useful parts of the mathematics." 
Provision was also made for the appointment of a writing 
master. But no public funds were granted for any of 
these purposes, and nothing seems to have been accom- 
plished under the act. 

Two years later an act was passed renewing this corpora- 
tion, and appointing Mr. John Douglass first master of the 
school, which was located at Charleston ; and life was given 
to the new enactment by an appropriation of public funds. 
It was provided that, in addition to a residence, the master 
should receive, out of the public treasury, the sum of one 

1 Murray, Hldory of education in New Jersey, passim. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 97 

hundred pounds annually. In consideration of this grant, 
he was required to teach twelve scholars free of charge. 
For others, he might charge four pounds a year. A gift of 
twenty pounds to the school should entitle, the donor to 
nominate a scholar, who should be taught free for a period 
of five years. Provision was made for an usher; and also 
for a fit person " to teach writing, arithmetic, and merchants' 
accounts, and also the art of navigation and surveying, and 
other useful and practical parts of mathematics." ^ A sig- 
nificant addition to this act was a section providing that 
schoolmasters in other parishes should receive a colonial 
subsidy of ten pounds a year, and empowering the parish 
vestries to build schoolhouses, with the aid of twelve pounds, 
in each case, from the provincial treasury. 

A congregation of settlers from the Massachusetts Dor- 
chester migrated, in the traditional fashion associated with 
that name, to South Carolina, and there set up a new Dor- 
chester. In 1734 an act of the legislature authorized them 
to erect a free school, " for the use of the inhabitants of the 
South Carolina." It would seem that no special fund was 
voted for the encouragement of this school. The master 
was not required to be a churchman ; but it was provided 
that he should " be capable to teach the learned languages, 
Latin and Greek tongues, and to catechise and instruct the 
youth in the principles of the Christian religion." ^ After 
the middle of the century, when a further migration from 
this South Carolina Dorchester to Georgia had taken place, 
the school was reorganized, with the rector of the parish 
as one of the commissioners ex officio, and a colonial subsidy 
of twenty-five pounds, "proclamation money," semi-annually 
was granted to it out of the church fund in the colonial 
treasury. 

Several other important endowments of secondary educa- 
tion are recorded in the colonial period. Among them were 

^ The documentary history of this school is given in Clews, op. cit., 
pp. 442-465. 

2 Clews, op. cit, pp. 465-472, 



98 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

those of the free school at Childsbury (1733), the Beresford 
Bounty School near Charleston (1721), the school of the 
Winyaw Indigo Society at Georgetown (1756), and others 
at Goose Creek, Beaufort, and Ninety-six. One of the most 
interesting of these endowments is that made at Georgetown, 
by the Indigo Society, which now provides a portion of the 
support of the Georgetown High School. 

In connection with the Presbyterian churches in the upper 
country, instruction was frequently given in the classic 
languages. In this way, the Log College and the College 
of New Jersey made their influence felt in the South. 
According to Mr. Edward McCrady, there were in South 
Carolina up to the close of the Revolution eleven public 
and three charitable grammar schools of which record can 
be found. In 1722 an act was passed which authorized the 
justices of county and precinct courts to set up a Latin 
school in each county and precinct in the province, and to 
impose a tax for its support, but it does not appear that 
anything came of this provision.^ 

Economic conditions in North Carolina were similarly 
unfavorable to the establishment of schools. Governor 
Johnson said, in 1736, "That the legislature has never yet 
tahen the least care to erect one school which deserves the 
name, in this wide extended country, must in the judgment 
of all thinking men, be reckoned one of our greatest misfort- 
unes." According to Mr. Charles Lee Smith, the first act of 
the North Carolina legislature for the establishment of a 
school was passed in 1749. It is doubtful whether the school 
then established in law was ever established in fact. The 
first real impulse toward the higher education came from the 
Presbyterian ministry. The Rev. James Tate established a 
classical school in the city of Wilmington about 1760. The 

1 Clews, op. cit. ; Meriwether, History of higher education in South 
Carolina; McCeady, Education in South Carolina. See also McCrady, 
South Carolina under the proprietary government ; and South Carolina binder 
the royal government, passim. Pnrticulnrly entertaining a(3connts of tlie Beres- 
ford Bounty School and that of the Winyaw Indigo Society ajipear in chapter 
I. of Meriwether's monograph. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 99 

Eev. David Caldwell, D.D., opened a classical school in G-uil- 
ford County, in 1766 or 1767. This soon became " one of the 
most noted schools of the South." A classical school, estab- 
lished about the same time at the Sugar Creek Presbyterian 
Church, near Charlotte, was the beginning of Queen's College, 
afterwards (1777) chartered by the state legislature as 
Liberty Hall Academy.^ 

As to Virginia, we have reports presented in 1724 from 
twenty-nine out of about forty-five parishes. In six of 
these there were public schools, and private schools were 
reported in eleven. The others had no public schools, and 
no report was presented with reference to private schools in 
them.2 Probably the most of these schools were of elemen- 
tary grade. 

Eaton's Charity School and Syms' Free School continued 
their good work ; and for the better management of those 
institutions, their boards of trustees were incorporated by 
the legislature in the seventeen-fifties. Provision was made 
at Norfolk, in 1736, for a school, the master of which should 
be " capable to teach the Greek and Latin tongues." This 
master was to be nominated by the county authorities after 
being examined and approved by the faculty of William and 
Mary College. The school established by Henry Peasley in 
1675, was reported in 1724 as endowed with five hundred 
acres of land, three slaves, and a number of cattle. The 
trustees of this school were directed by a legislative act 
of 1756 to found a free school in each of the parishes ©f 
Abingdon and Ware. Various other endowed schools appear 
in the records, but rather vaguely.^ 

Many boys were educated in their homes by private 
tutors. George Washington attended an academy in Fred- 
ericksburg, of which the Eev. James Marye was master. 
In the latter part of the period under consideration, the 

^ Smith, History of education in North Carolina, passim. 
2 Perry's Historical collections, quoted in William and Mary College 
Quarterly, VI., p. 78, foot-note. 

^ William and Mary College Quarterly, loc. cit. 

L.ofC. 



100 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

schools established by Scotch-Irish ministers in the upland 
regions were influential here, as in neighboring colonies. ^ 

Mr. Basil Sollers has traced, with the greatest pains, the 
history of the several county schools of Maryland. Fifteen 
of these were established in colonial times, " The scarcity 
of good teachers seems," he says, " from the many advertise- 
ments promising ' suitable encouragement ' to any person 
qualified for a schoolmaster, to have been an unsurmount- 
able obstacle to the continuous success of the public or 
county schools. Another cause of failure was want of 
interest on the part of visitors. . . .Their usefulness had at 
the time of the Revolution practically ceased in most 



cases. 



2 



The success of the academy and college in Philadelphia 
roused the Marylanders to emulation. Repeated efforts were 
made to establish a college in the province, and for a time 
with good prospect of success. But the coming on of revo- 
lutionary disturbances prevented a realization of these pro- 
jects. An occasional private classical school appears in the 
history of the colony. The Presbyterian minister comes 
upon the scene, with his unfailing zeal for learning. The 
Rev. Samuel Finley's academy at Nottingham (1744-1761) 
was a famous school, in which two governors, a speaker of 
the House of Representatives, Dr. Benjamin Rush and his 
brother Jacob, and other distinguished men received their 
early training.^ The founder became president of Princeton 
College. Some of the Episcopalian rectors did good service 
by undertaking the education of a few boys in addition to 
their regular duties. One of these was the famous Jonathan 
Boucher of Annapolis. 

In an address prepared by Dr. Boucher in 1773, a vivid 
account is given of the sorry state of Maryland education on 
the eve of the Revolution. " In a country containing not 
less than half a million souls," so runs a part of this address 

1 Cf. FiSKE, Old Virginia and her neighbors, II., pji. 246-253. 
'-^ Steiner, Education in Maryland, pp. 32-33. 
3 Alexander, The Log College, pp. 294, 305-306. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 101 

" ( . . . a people further advanced in many of the refine- 
ments of life than many large districts even of the parent 
state, and in general thriving if not opulent) there is yet 
not a single college, and only one school with an endowment 
adequate to the maintenance of even a common mechanic. 
What is still less credible is that at least two-thirds of the 
little education we receive are derived from instructors who 
are either indentured servants or transported felons." ^ 

In Ehode Island, a new beginning of secondary education 
was made in 1764, by the establishment of the University 
Grammar School at Warren. The Eev. James Manning, an 
excellent man, was the first master of this school. When 
later in the same year, Rhode Island College (now Brown 
University) was founded, Dr. Manning became its first presi- 
dent. The school was, in fact, the direct forerunner of the 
college, and when the college came into existence, the 
school was continued as one of its chief tributaries.^ 

We find no record of secondary education in Georgia pre- 
vious to the Revolution. Much interest centred in the 
Orphan House at Bethesda, established by Whitefield, and 
long supported by funds which he solicited.^ Whitefield 
sought to carry this institution upward into a full collegiate 
organization. Franklin writes that the last time he saw 
him, the preacher consulted him with reference to his 
purpose of transforming his Orphan House into a college. 
When the college project failed, in 1767, because of dis- 
agreement with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Whitefield 
wrote to the governor of Georgia : " I now purpose to super- 
add a public academy to the Orphan House, as the College 
of Philadelphia was constituted a public academy, as well as 
charitable school, for some time before its present college 
charter was granted." * But the academy project, too, failed 

1 This address is found in Boucher's View of the American Revolution. 

2 ToLMAN, History of higher education in Rhode Island. 

^ Many will recall at once the amusing story told by Franklin in his auto- 
biography of Whitefield's success in persuading him to empty his pockets for 
the benefit of this charity. 

* Tyerman, L'Ife of Whitefield, II., p. 528. 



102 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

for the time. Long after the Eevolution, when the affairs 
of the Orphan House were wound up by act of the legis- 
hiture, a portion of the proceeds went to the support of 
Chatham Academy.^ 

While the Log College was engaging the attention of 
Presbyterians to the northward of Philadelphia, the presby- 
teries to the southward, in Pennsylvania and Delaware, were 
making plans of their own for the maintenance of a learned 
ministry. The most feasible scheme which presented itself 
to them was that of establishing a school which should con- 
duct its students well on into the college course. It was 
thought that an arrangement might then be made with Yale 
College to take the students at that point and carry them 
forward to the bachelor's degree. Three presbyteries com- 
bined their forces to establish such a school in 1743. The 
Synod of Philadelphia approved of the enterprise, and took 
it in hand the following year. The Rev. Francis Alison was 
chosen master, at a salary of twenty pounds a year, with 
authority to select an usher who should receive fifteen 
pounds a year. The authorities of Yale College received 
the overtures of the new institution with friendly sympathy 
and apparently agreed to receive its students to such stand- 
ing as their scholarship should justify, and to admit them to 
a degree after one year's residence. It is not known whether 
any students ever availed themselves of this privilege. 

The master designated by the synod was pastor of a Presby- 
terian church at New London, Pennsylvania, and had already 
opened a school on his own account. This became the 
school of the synod in 1744. It was fondly hoped by the 
promoters that it would grow into a college ; but the course 
of events led to the setting up of our first Presbyterian insti- 
tution of higher education in New Jersey, under different 
auspices. 

Francis Alison was one of the most learned men of 
his time in the colonies. President Stiles of Yale College 
spoke of him as " the greatest classical scholar in Amer- 

1 Jones, Education in Georgia, pp. 11-16. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS lOt 

ica, especially in Greek." He had a hasty temper — no 
uncommon thing in the school men of that time — but was 
placable, and commanded the love and respect of his pupils. 
Many of these attained to considerable eminence. In 1752 
he withdrew from the school at New London to become the 
head of the academy established at Philadelphia through 
the efforts of Benjamin Franklin. 

The school of the synod was continued; and was removed 
to Elkton in 1752, and to Newark, Delaware, in 1767. It 
was chartered by the Proprietaries two years later as 
Newark Academy. This was one of the earliest institu- 
tions for secondary education in Delaware. The Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel had done much for educa- 
tion in the Three Lower Counties, but this was mainly of 
an elementary grade. The Newark Academy added an im- 
portant element to the educational facilities of that region. ^ 

The effort of the promoters of the school at New London 
to maintain the requirement of some sort of college course 
in the case of candidates for the ministry is worthy of re- 
mark. It was easy for Yale College to co-operate with such 
a movement, for Connecticut Congregationalism was half- 
way Presbyterian. The Yale policy, too, at this time, was 
strongly opposed to the New Light party, with all of its 
tendency toward a social and educational levelling down. 

Secondary instruction was given at many places in Penn- 
sylvania during this period, but too often the efforts in this 
direction were short-lived. The stress of economic need and 
the pressure o*f war and political agitation, were unfavorable 
to spiritual concerns. Brave efforts were made by some of 
the German sects to maintain schools of high grade. The 
Quakers exerted themselves to the same end, often uniting 
their efforts with those of other denominations ; and broaden- 
ing their courses of instruction by the addition of mathe- 
matical and scientific subjects, to meet the demands of the 
time. Much good work was done in several communities 

1 Alexander, The Log College, chapter 7. Powell, History of educa- 
tion in Delaware. Catalogue of the Academy. 



104 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

by the Episcopalian churches, in co-operation with the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, And the Log 
College Presbyterians carried a zeal for classical instruction 
with them wherever they appeared. 

Yet it was an uphill road that they travelled. "In 1775," 
says Mr. Wickersham, "not only was the number of scholarly 
men in the Province small, but comparatively few grown per- 
sons could do more than read, write and calculate according 
to the elementary rules of Arithmetic, and many remained 
wholly illiterate. There was little demand for higher insti- 
tutions of learning, and few existed. The College and the 
Friends' Public School in Philadelphia, the Academy at 
Gerniantown, and scarcely half a dozen private classical 
schools in the older settled counties, with in all an attend- 
ance of three or four hundred students, absolutely exhaust 
the advantages of this character enjoyed at home by our 
Eevolutionary fathers." ^ 

The several tendencies of this period were blended to a 
remarkable degree in the school established at Philadelphia 
through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin. This school is 
believed to have been the first institution formally incorpo- 
rated in this country under the title of academy. In many 
ways, its establishment marks the beginning of the first 
stage of that academy movement which had been fore- 
shadowed by many variations from the earlier type of edu- 
cation, and for which the social, economic, and religious 
changes of half a century had prepared the way. The mak- 
ing of this school will be reviewed in conneetion with the 
story of the American academies. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

The volumes of tlie ''Amcricau Church History" scries (Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sous), give a comprehensive view of ecclesiastical aud religious move- 
mcuts iu the colonies. In conucction with this chapter, the foUowiug 
numbers are especially useful : 

1 Op. cit., pp. 255-256. 



LATER COLONIAL SCHOOLS 105 

Walker, Williston. A history of the Congregatioual churches in the 
United States. III., fourth eel., 1899. 

Thompson, Rev. E,. E. History of the Presbyterian churches in the 
United States. VI., 1895. 

Tiffany, Rev. C. C. A history of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
the United States of America. VII., 1895. 

Bacon, Leonard Woolsey. A history of American Christianity. XIII., 
1897. 

A great mass of information is embodied in the 

Classified digest of the records of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1701-1892, fifth edition. London: Pub- 
lished at the Society's Office, 1895. Pp. 16 + 984. 

Chapter 94, pp. 743-768, contains a full history of the movement in 
favor of a colonial episcopate. 

For New England's part in the Great Awakening, we have the vivid 
accounts by Jonathan Edwards, in his Faithful narrative, 1736, and 
Thoughts on the revival, 1742. These were reprinted in a volume entitled 
Edwards on revivals, published at New York, in 1832. The histories of 
Harvard and Yale Colleges, and New England state and local histories, 
give us many views of the awakening. 

For the middle states, we get an insight into the nature and results of 
the awakening from Alexander's Biographical sketches of the founder^ 
and priiicipal alumni of the Log College (see Bibliography), and the 
several histories of the College of New Jersey. 

A protestation presented to the Synod of Philadelphia, June 1, 1741. 
Philadelphia : Printed and sold by B. Franklin, 1741, 

shows how intense an opposition to the movement was aroused within the 
Presbyterian Church. 

Franklin printed also instalments of Whitefield's Journal. The 
original account of the Log College appears in vol. II. of 

A continuation of the Revereni^ Mr. Whitefield's Journal during the Time 
lie was detained in England, by the Embargo. Philadelphia, 1740. 

Franklin's autobiography has much that bears upon the subject of this 
chapter. It is given in vol. I. of his Complete works edited by John 
Bigelow (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887). 

For a full account of Wliitefield's career, see 

Tyerman, Rev. L. The life of the Rev. George Whitefield. In 2 vols. 
New York : Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 1877. 



106 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The work of Jonathan Bouchek to which reference is made is 

A view of the causes and consequences of the American Revolution ; in 
thirteen discourses preached in North America between the years 1763 
and 1775 : with an historical preface. London, 1797- 

The works referred to which relate more specifically to the history of 
education, receive mention in the Bibliography at the end of this volume. 



CHAPTER VI 
COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 

Colonial society was not yet democratic. There was much 
in it that pointed forward to democracy, but the leaders 
refused to believe the signs. Seventeenth-century America, 
like seventeenth-century England, presented well-marked 
social distinctions ; the people constituted a succession of 
social planes. The highest and the lowest were lacking 
here, but the several grades of higher and lower were pretty 
sharply distinguished. The great body of the people were 
those known as Goodman or Goodwife So-and-so. Below 
these were common servants ; above were families whose 
lords were entitled to the designation " Mr." ^ At the top 
were the magistrates and ministers. The intermediate ranks 
were carefully graded ; and seats were assigned in the meet- 
ing house accordingly, one pew being designated as " first in 
dignety, the next behind it to be 2d in dignety," and so 
on .2 Similar distinctions were observed in the colleges. At 
Yale, the practice of arranging the names of the students 
in the annual catalogue according to the rank of the parents 
was not discontinued till 1767 ; and at Harvard not till three 
years later. 

According to Mr. Dexter's interesting monograph on this 
subject, it appears that the problem of " placing " the several 

1 Of the freemen of Massachusetts constituted before 1649, one in fourteen 
had the title Mr. Cf. Weeden, Economic and social history, I., p. 419. 

2 Op. ciL, L, pp. 74-75, .528-530, 699. The seating committee at Woburn, 
Mass., in 1672, was instructed by the town to respect "estate, office, and 
Jige" in the discharge of their function. At Stamford, Conn., in 1673, the 
seating was according to "dignity, agge and estate," Id., p. 280. Changes 
in the system of seating were indicative of change in social conditions. 



108 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

classes was a perplexing one to the college authorities, and 
became much more so as the eighteenth century advanced. 
Each class was placed late in the freshman year, and such 
placing continued unchanged throughout the college course 
except as students were occasionally degraded by way of 
punishment for some irregularity or other. 

" Contrary perhaps to a prevailing impression, there was never 
any disposition to exalt the ministerial order above laymen of 
distinction. . . . Practitioners of medicine had not [by the middle 
of the eighteenth century] . . . gained a secure position as pro- 
fessional men. . . . The legal profession had gained an earlier 
and fuller recognition. . . . Next to the three learned professions 
ought to come that of the teacher ; but not so in the regard of 
these college authorities. . . . Considerations of ancestral dis- 
tinction, of family estate, of paternal position, and the like, 
entered into each case in ever-varying combinations, precluding 
the possibility of any cut-and-dried system." ^ 

In the eighteenth century, wealth came to be a prominent 
factor in the determining of family rank ; but in the earlier 
days, particularly in New England, no badge of nobility, 
other than civil office, was more universally recognized than 
superior education and ministerial standing. If these re- 
marks relate more particularly to New England, it will be 
remembered that in the other colonies also definite grada- 
tions of social rank still persisted, and were recognized as a 
matter of course .^ 

In this state of society, no public secondary school seems 
to have been even thought of for the great body of citizens 
— the middle or lower middle class. It was thought 
desirable that all should know how to read. And a college 
training was needed by members of the directive class. The 
secondary school was not a mean between these extremes, 

1 Op. ciL, pp. 16, 18-19. 

2 See the shrewd comment on the democratic practices common in New 
Jersey,as contrasted with Virginia customs, in Fithian's Journal and letters, 
p. 28.5. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 109 

but rather an institution subsidiary to the college ; that is, 
a preparatory school in the narrower sense. Promising 
youth, whatever their social station, were encouraged to go to 
school. But their education was preparation for a place in 
an "upper, that is, a ruling or at least a directing, class. 

The ecclesiastical origin of our education is recalled by \ 
the fact that that portion of the directive class for which the 
colleges and grammar schools were chiefly intended was 
the ministry of the churches. The good of the state was 
thought of in all of these foundations ; but the thought of 
the church was uppermost, and it is doubtful whether our 
earlier colleges would have been founded at all, if it had not 
been for the desire to provide an educated ministry. Closely 
connected with this desire was the ambition to educate the 
red natives of the country in the Christian faith — an ambi- 
tion which appeared in both whimsical and pathetic 
manifestations. 

Some of our novelists, exercising the freedom that belongs 
to art, have reconstructed the school life of colonial days 
in a way that historians can only look upon with wonder 
and great admiration. Mr. Dempster, the Scotch tutor of 
George and Harry Warrington, and his successor, Mr. Ward, 
whom Mr. Whitefield had expressly recommended, are as 
much alive as any colonial schoolmasters yet remaining. 
Miss Johnston has abundant justification in colonial docu- 
ments for so villainous a character as Bartholomew Paris, 
in her story of Audrey. The account of King William's 
school in Richard Carvel is good enough to be true ; but in 
it Mr. Churchill has employed his own resources to make 
good a defect in contemporary records. David Dove, who 
figures in the early chapters of Hugh Wynne, was an his- 
torical character. He held a place of considerable impor- 
tance among our eighteenth century masters, and possibly 
deserved gentler treatment than he has received at Dr. 
Mitchell's hands. 

But we are not wholly dependent upon fiction for our 
view of colonial schools and masters ; and in a few instances 



110 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

even the literary setting-forth of the career of our old-time 
teachers will stand comparison with the narratives of the 
novelists. 

The schoolmasters of the colonial period may be roughly 
divided into three classes. There were a few men of 
scholarly preparation who made teaching the work of their 
lives, and kept up the best traditions of the free-school 
masters of Old England — of Mulcaster and Brinsley and 
Charles Hoole. Then there were young clergymen, and 
ministers of non-episcopalian denominations, recently from 
college, who taught school while waiting for a call to the 
pastoral office. Finally, there was a miscellaneous lot of 
adventurers, indented servants, educated rogues, and the 
like, all either mentally or morally incompetent, or both, 
who taught school only to keep from starving. 

The social standing of these masters was variable, being 
largely determined by their individual character. In so far 
as their position can be spoken of in general terms, it was 
probably highest in New England, where we sometimes find 
them and their wives assigned to very honorable places in 
the churches. The complaint against the schoolmasters of 
Maryland as a class has been referred to already. But we 
find exceptions in plenty both north and south. 

The head of our long line of really eminent masters is, 
beyond question, Ezekiel Cheever, and he is one of those 
who have been fortunate in having their praises worthily 
recorded. In his notable address at the two hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Boston Latin School, 
Phillips Brooks made Cheever and John Lovell stand respec- 
tively for the spirit of the earlier and of the later coloniaT 
period. Of these two representative men the first-named 
was born at London, in 1614. Tradition represents him as 
having been a pupil at St. Paul's school. He was among 
the earliest of the New Haven colonists, and began teaching 
school in the town of New Haven within a few months 
after his arrival. A dozen years later, he became master of 
the school at Ipswich ; then of that at Charlestown ; and in 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 111 

1670 he was called to Boston, and solemnly presented by 
the governor of the colony with the keys of the Latin School. 
He was master of this school continuously for thirty-eight 
years, and died in office at the good old age of ninety-four. 
He was buried from the schoolhouse ; and Cotton Mather 
not only preached a sermon but also wrote a poem to his 
memory. 

The poem is no worse than the common run of colonial 
verse, and certainly no more pedantic than the author's 
prose. After the inevitable quotation from the Latin, by 
way of introduction, it begins : 

" You that are Men, & Thoughts of Manhood know, 
Be Just now to the Man that made you so." 

A few passages, some of them well worn by repeated 
quotation, may be given here. They tell something of 
Cheever, but more, to be sure, of Cotton Mather: 

" A mighty Tribe of Well-instructed Youth 
Tell what they owe to him, and Tell with Truth, 
All the Eight parts of Speech he taught to tliem 
They now Employ to Trumpet his Esteem. 

Magister pleas'd them well, because 't was he ; 
They saw that Bomis did with it agree. 
While they said, Amo, tliey the Hint improve 
Him for to make the Object of their Love. 
No Concord so Inviolate they knew 
As to pay Honours to their Master due. 
With Interjections they break off at last, 
But, Ah, is all they use, Wo, and, Alas ! " 

More follows in the same vein ; but the task is too great : 

" Ink is too vile a Liquor ; Liquid Gold 
Should fill the Pen, by which such things are told." 

The learning of the master is extolled : 

"Were Grammar quite Extinct, yet at his Brain 
The Candle might have well been lit again. 
If Rhefrick had been stript of all her Pride 
She from his Wardrobe might have been supply'd." 



112 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Speak the name of Cheever, and Echo will straightway 
answer, Good Latin. He was a Christian Terence : 

" And in our School a Miracle is wrought ; 
Tor the Dead Languages to Life are brought." 

" His Work he Lov'd : Oh ! had we done the same ! 
Our Flay-dayes stiLl to him ungrateful came. 
And yet so well our Work adjusted Lay, 
We came to Work, as if we came to T?lay. 

'T is Corlet's pains, & Cheever's, we must own, 
That thou, New-England, art not Scythia grown." 

Due homage is paid to the religious faithfulness of the 
master, and his instruction in Christian doctrine : 

"He taught us Lilly, and he Gospel taught." 

There is real eloquence mixed with the petty conceits 
with which the master's extreme old age is celebrated : 

" Come from the Mount, he shone with ancient Grace, 
Awful the Sple/idor of his Aged Face, 
Cloath'd in the Good Old Way, his Garb did wage 
A War with the Vain Fashions of the Age. 

He Liv'd and to vast Age no Illness knew ; 
Till Times Scythe waiting for him Rusty grew, 
He Liv^l and Wrought ; His Labors were Immense ; 
But ne'r BecliiCd to Praeter-perfect Tense- 

So, Ripe with Age, he does invite the Hook, 
Which watchful does for its large Harvest look ; 
Death gently cut the Stalk, and kindly laid 
Him, where our God His Granary has made." 

The language of the sermon, and of " An Historical Intro- 
duction " printed with it, is of a like tenor : " He died . . . 
In the Ninety Fourth Year of his Age ; after he had been a 
Skilful, Painful, Faithful Schoolmaster, for Seventy Years ; 
And he had the Singular Favour of Heaven, that tho' he had 
Usefully spent his Life among Child'ren, yet he was not be- 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 113 

come Twice a Child." " We generally concur in acknowledg- 
ing that New-England has never known a tetter [school- 
master]." " It was noted, that when Scholars came to be 
Admitted into the Colledge, they who came from the Chee- 
verian Education, were generally the most unexceptionable. 
What Exception shall be made, Let it fall upon him, that is 
now speaking of it." " My Master went thro' his Hard Work 
with so much Delight in it, as a Work for God and Christ, 
and His People : He so constantly Pray'd with us every Day, 
and Catechisd us every Week, and let fall such Holy Counsels 
upon us ; He took so many Occasions, to make Speeches unto 
us, that should make us Afraid of Sin, and of incurring the 
fearful Judgments of God by Sin ; That I do propose him 
for Imitation." " Out of the School, he was One, Antiqua 
Fide, priscis morihus ; A Christian of the Old Fashion : An 
Old New English Christian : And I may tell you, That 
was as Venerable a Sight, as the World, since the Days of 
Primitive Ghi'istianity, has ever look'd upon." The master's 
acquaintance with the body of divinity is mentioned ; and 
comment on his knowledge of the Scripture prophecies 
closes with the high praise that he was " A Sober Chiliast ! " 

All this is turgid enough, no doubt, but who can read it 
without some stirring of the heart ? This old schoolmaster 
served a different age from ours, and one that was already 
passing away when he died. But he served it faithfully ; 
and it was no mean age. " He Dyed" the sermon adds, 
" mourning for the Quick Apostasie, which he saw break- 
ing in upon us." How much of this is Cheever and how 
much Mather it may be hard to say. He was " very easie 
about his own Eternal Happiness, but full of Distress for a 
poor People here under the Displeasure of Heaven, for 
Former Iniquities, he thought, as well as Later Ones." 

Other New England worthies joined in eulogy of the 
great schoolmaster. Judge Sewall wrote in that remarkable 
diary, of his professional career, and added, " He has 
Laboured in that Calling, Skillfully, diligently, constantly, 
Pieligiously, Seventy years. A Rare Instance of Piety, 



114 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Health, Strength, Serviceableness. The Wellfare of the 
Province was much upon his Spirit. He abominated 
Perriwiggs." ^ 

Governor Hutchinson spoke of him as " venerable not 
merely for his great age, 94, but for having been the school- 
master of most of the principal gentlemen in Boston who 
were then [1708] upon the stage. He is not the only mas- 
ter who kept his lamp longer lighted than otherwise it 
would have been, by a supply of oil from his scholars." 

Some further understanding of Cheever's character may 
be gathered from the autobiography of the Kev. John Bar- 
nard, who was one of his pupils. Barnard had become the 
head of his class in the Latin school (about 1692). 
" Though my master advanced me," he writes, " yet I was a 
very naughty boy, much given to play, insomuch that he at 
length openly declared, ' you Barnard, I know you can do 
well enough if you will, but you are so full of play that 
you hinder your classmates from getting their lessons ; and 
therefore, if any of them cannot perform their duty, I shall 
correct you for it.' " The threat was duly carried out. One 
boy, out of pure mischief, repeatedly got Barnard into 
trouble in this way, until, failing of relief from the master, 
the unfortunate youngster took the case into his own hands, 
and gave the real culprit such a drubbing that he never 
came back to school. 

We get another glimpse of the master, too good to be lost, 
in this same autobiography. " I remember once, in making 
a piece of Latin, my master found fault with the syntax of 
one word, which was not so used by me heedlessly, but 
designedly, and therefore I told him there was a plain gram- 
mar rule for it. He angrily replied, there was no such rule. 
I took the grammar and showed the rule to him. Then he 



1 Other good men shared in the opposition to the new fashion of wearing 
wigs, notably the Apostle Eliot. Cotton Mather remarked of him that, 
" The Hair of them that professed Religion, long before his Death, grew too 
Jong for him to swallow ; and he would express himself continually with a 
boiling Zeal concerning it." Magnalla, p. 180. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 115 

smilingly said, ' Thou art a brave boy ; I had forgot it.' 
And no wonder ; for he was then above eighty years old." ^ 

■Late in the eighteenth century, President Stiles of Yale 
College gathered up some fragments of information from an 
old man, the Eev. Samuel Maxwell, of Warren, Ehode Island, 
who also had been one of Cheever's pupils. " He told me he 
well knew the famous Grammar School Master, Mr. Ezekiel 
Cheever of Boston, Author of the Accidence : that he wore a 
long white Beard, terminating in a point ; that when he 
stroked his Beard to the point, it was a sign for the Boys 
to stand clear." ^ 

Phillips Brooks, in the oration already referred to, ex- 
pressed the wish that, in the absence of any authentic like- 
ness, some artist would do for Ezekiel Cheever what one 
has already done for John Harvard, so that our thought of 
him may rest upon some noble expression of his character 
in stone or bronze. 

John Lovell, who was designated by the great preacher as 
representative of the eighteenth century, was a man of a 
very different sort. He wore a periwig. He had gone 
through the regulation paces of the regular Boston boy : 
through the Latin School, and through Harvard College. 
His mastership of the Latin School began in 1734 and 
closed with the outbreak of the Eevolutionary War. 

It was during this time that the religious revolution 
wrought by the Great Awakening was preparing the way 
for political revolution. But John Lovell was of that large 
number, of comfortable and highly respectable people, who 
were unmoved by either of these revolutions. He was of that 
conservatism which, in its effort to make no obeisance to 
popular tendencies, sometimes leans backward and becomes 
another sort of radicalism. This spirit was greatly on the 
increase in the colonies, especially in the more prosperous 

^ Barnard's AiUobioyraphy appears in the Collections of the Massachu- 
setts Historical Society, 3d series, V., pp. 177-243. 

^ Literary diary of Ezra Stiles (Franklin Bowditch Dkxter, Editor), 
I., pp. 227-228. 



116 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

centers. It was in touch with Augustan England. Some- 
times it was fixedly and traditionally orthodox ; sometimes 
it drew near to English deism. In this latter form, it 
found a counterpart in the Enlightenment of the continent 
of Europe. On its less noble side, it appeared as a com- 
placent and immovable toryism. John Lovell was a tory 
of the tories. To the boys he was " Old Gaffer," whatever 
that may mean. 

" Though a severe teacher, yet he was remarkably humor- 
ous and an agreeable companion." Such is the description 
of him that has come down to us. Of the severity there 
can be little doubt, for it is attested in trembling accents 
by some of his pupils long after they had grown to man- 
hood. " Lovell was a tyrant," says one of them, " and his 
system was one of terror. Trouncing was common in the 
school. Dr. Cooper was one of his early scholars, and he 
told Dr. Jackson, the minister of Brookline, that he had 
dreams of school till he died [!]. The boys were so afraid 
they could not study. Sam. Bradford, afterward sheriflF, 
pronounced the P in Ptolemy, and the younger Lovell 
rapped him over the head with a heavy ferule." ^ 

This younger Lovell was James, the son of John, who 
had become assistant to his father in the management of 
the school. He had a son, also named James, who was a 
pupil in the school ; and on one occasion grandfather John 
beat the little James till James the father rose in his place 
and said, " Sir, you have flogged that boy enough." 

It must have been during the short and rare vacations — 
two in the year, at election and commencement times — 
that John Lovell appeared as the humorous and agreeable 
companion. On those occasions he went fisliing with some 
of his friends, and the party " passed their time pleasantly 
in telling funny stories and laughing very loudly." Lovell 
allowed his best boys to go out into the open, and culti- 
vate his garden for him. James Bowdoin and Harrison 
Gray Otis received this mark of distinction. They were 

1 Am. Journ. Ed., XXVII., p. 79. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 117 

allowed to laugh as much as they pleased while they tilled. 
Another school honor was that of sawing the master's wood 
and bottling his cider. It was enjoyed by those future 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock 
and Eobert Treat Paine and William Hooper. 

It would have grieved the master to the heart to know 
that he was bringing up young men for such rebellion. But 
James Lovell, the son, was himself an incipient rebel. The 
father's desk was at one end of the room and the son's at the 
other, so the tradition goes ; and, facing in opposite directions, 
one taught the boys the rights of the crown and the other 
the rights of the people. On the nineteenth of April, 1775, 
Harrison Gray Otis, on his way to school, was obliged to 
make a detour to avoid the line of Percy's brigade, drawn 
up for the march to Lexington. He got into the school- 
room just in time to hear the words of the master, " War 's 
begun and school 's done : Deponite libros ; " and then he 
"ran home for fear of the regulars." The following spring 
John Lovell, with many another loyalist, sailed off to 
Halifax, out of respect to Washington's guns new-mounted 
on Dorchester Heights.^ 

These representative masters were both professional teach- 
ers, and each gave long years of service to a single school. 
The history of the Hopkins school at Hadley shows a differ- 
ent state of affairs. There the teachers were mostly young 
men just out of college, and on their way to the ministry ; 
and they commonly remained with the school for one year 
only, or even for a shorter period.^ 

If we are to judge by the wide educational influence exer- 
cised by his disciples, we must count William Tennent the 
elder as one of our greatest eighteenth-century teachers. 
We know comparatively little about the actual schooling 
given in the Log College, or about the characteristics of the 

1 The documentary material relating to Clieever and Lovell will be found 
for the most part reproduced in Hassam's Ezekiel Clieever and Jenks' Histori- 
cal sketch. 

2 Am. Journ. Ed., XXVII., p. 152. History of the Hopkins fund in Had- 
ley, oh. 7. 



118 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

master. One who knew him well said of him that he could 
speak and converse in Latin with almost as much facility 
as in his mother tongue. He delivered at one time " an 
elegant Latin oration" before the Synod of Philadelphia. 
Dr. Alexander adds that his attainments in " science " were 
thought to be less considerable than his linguistic knowl- 
edge.i A young pedler appeared at the College one day 
and entered into easy conversation, in Latin, with Mr. 
Tennent. It turned out that this pedler, whose name was 
Charles Beatty, had received some classical instruction at 
his home in the north of Ireland before emigrating to 
America. Mr. Tennent quickly persuaded him to continue 
his studies at the Log College. In due time he became an 
able and honored minister, and a trustee of the College of 
New Jersey. 

This is only one instance of Mr. Tennent's success in draw- 
ing young men of promise to his school, and then sending 
them out, on fire with zeal for religion and education, and 
fairly well prepared to render a good account of themselves. 
The master was already past middle life when he came to 
this country ; and his Log College, established about 1726, 
was in existence hardly more than twenty years. Yet 
among its alumni were the Eev. Samuel Blair, who estab- 
lished the Fagg's Manor School; the Eev. John Blair, who 
succeeded his brother, Samuel, in charge of this school, and 
became a professor at Princeton ; the Eev. Samuel Finley, 
D.D., who established a school at Nottingham, Maryland, and 
later became president of the College of New Jersey. Sev- 
eral other notable names might be added to this list ; and 
if it were made to include those of a second generation — 
the pupils of Mr. Tennent's pupils — it would show a far- 
reaching and powerful educational influence.^ 

Much of colonial schooling was got from private teachers 
who set up in the business on their own account. The ad- 

1 The reference, I suppose, is to the philosophical sciences, as logic aud 
metapliysics. 

2 Alexander, The Log College, passim. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 119 

vertisements of such schools are common enough in colonial 
newspapers, and some of them are highly entertaining, being 
pretentious and bombastic to the last degree. The most of 
these school adventurers must have been utterly unworthy. 
The tutors in private families often were no better. It was 
no uncommon thing for the owner of a plantation to buy a 
schoolmaster for a term of years from the master of some 
incoming vessel. But there were many degrees of excellence 
among these tutors, even such as were redemptioners. 

Philip Vickers Fithian, after graduating from the college 
of New Jersey, became private tutor in the family of Eobert 
Carter of Virginia. His diary and letters give a vivid ac- 
count of the school life on one of the best of the Virginia 
plantations. " I observe," he says, " that ... it has been 
the custom heretofore to have all their Tutors, and School- 
masters from Scotland, the?' they begin to be willing to em- 
ploy their own countrymen." ^ 

Clergymen in many instances undertook, in addition to 
their ordinary duties, the instruction of a few boys, who 
were received into the pastor's family and given such special 
attention as the circumstances permitted. Jonathan Boucher 
is a notable example. He was considered one of the best 
preachers of his time in the Church of England. At the 
age of twenty-one, he went from his English home to 
Virginia as tutor in a private family. He continued for 
some years in this occupation, evidently making for himself 
a good reputation. Then he resolved to take orders, and ac- 
cordingly returned to England, where he was ordained by the 
Bishop of London in 1762. Keturning to America, he became 
successively rector of two or three parishes in Virginia, and 
finally of St. Anne's at Annapolis. According to his report, 
Annapolis was at that time " the genteelest town in North 
America." During his Virginia pastorates, he had nearly 
thirty boys at a time under his personal instruction. He 
continued his teaching after his removal to Annapolis, 

1 Journal and letters, p. 58. Interesting glimpses of the school are given 
on pp. 50, 277-280, and in numerous other passages. 



120 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

and John Parke Custis, the stepson of Washington, was 
among the pupils who went with him to his new field. 
An interesting correspondence passed between Boucher 
and Washington with reference to the education of this 
boy. 

Young Custis was fourteen years old when Washington 
applied to Boucher to receive him. He had been reading 
Vergil two years, and had made a beginning in the Greek 
Testament. He was untainted in morals and manners ; and 
since he would inherit a large fortune, Washington was 
desirous of making him " fit for more useful purposes than 
Horse Eacer." Boucher himself delighted in horse racing, 
but still more he delighted in literary pursuits. A theatre 
was built at Annapolis during his residence in the town, 
and he distinguished himself by writing some verses about 
one of the actresses, as well as a prologue or two. He wrote 
also a petition in verse in behalf of the old church, which 
was well received. And he was president of the Homony 
Club, which was composed of a few social and literary men, 
and was intended to promote genial fellowship. 

He lamented in a letter to Washington that, though he 
had been teaching upwards of seven years, he could not 
boast of having brought up a single scholar. Washington 
was requested to look among his books for a copy of Cicero's ^ 
JDe ojicus, or epistles, and of Livy, doubtless for the use of 
the boy. Jacky was not distinguished for scholarship. He 
seems to have been a lovable youngster, but so susceptible 
to the influence of his companions as to cause no small 
amount of anxiety. Boucher believed that life in the school 
would be good for him, as enabling him to add some of the 
wisdom of the serpent to the harmlessness of the dove. At 
one time arrangements were making to send him to Europe 
for the advantage of travel with his tutor ; and Boucher 
laid before Washington his ideas of the usefulness of an 
acquaintance with foreign countries. 

1 In earlier notices we commonly read of Tally's works. Boucher agrees 
with our current usage in writing instead, Cicero. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 121 

When the boy had been with Boucher for three years, 
Washington intimated to the rector that no great progress 
had been made in his studies. Boucher replied that he now 
understood the principles of what he had previously acquired 
by rote ; but added that " there is a Deal of Difference to be 
observed in y® Educate a Gentleman, & a mere scholar." At 
this time the boy had begun arithmetic over again, and was 
about to enter upon the study of French. Dr. Wither- 
spoon 1 had said that he ought to have been put into Greek. 
Boucher admitted that he had himself somewhat neglected 
his duty as tutor, but added the retort that he had given 
his pupil the training suited to a gentleman, rather than 
that of a pedant or schoolmaster. It was decided that the 
boy should go to college. There was a conference on this 
subject, and the merits and demerits of the colonial institu- 
tions were discussed in all frankness, with the result that 
Jack was sent to King's College in New York. 

Boucher seems to have been admitted to intimate relations 
with the Washingtons. But with increasing estrangement 
between the colonies and the mother country, their friend- 
ship cooled ; for Boucher was an uncompromising loyalist, 
and spoke up fearlessly against the rebellious proceedings of 
the colonies. His last sermon at Annapolis was preached 
with pistols on his pulpit cushion, and closed with the 
words, " As long as I live, yea, while I have my being, will 
I proclaim God save the King." He returned to England 
in the fall of 1775, but before leaving America he wrote a 
scathing letter to Washington, in which he charged the Vir- 
ginian, not with sharing in the persecution of himself, to be 
sure, but with having failed to lift a manly voice against 
such persecution.^ 

We find in this schoolmaster-clergyman a representative 
of the better tory element, which was driven from this 
country along with so much that was unworthy. In Eng- 
land he was given a vicarage, which he retained till his 

1 Doubtless President Witherspoon of Princeton College is meant. 
'■^ Ford, Letters of Jonatlian Boucher. 



122 TEE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

death in 1804 He was held in much esteem, not only as 
a preacher, but also because of his literary, and particularly 
his philological distinction. A poetical epistle, addressed to 
him on his return from America, was published. He pre- 
pared a Glossary of archaic and provincial vjorcls, which 
was intended as a supplement to Johnson's dictionary.^ 
But of especial importance from an American point of 
view was the publication of thirteen of his American dis- 
courses, under the title, A vieiv of the causes and conse- 
quences of the American Bevolution. This volume was 
issued in 1797, and, curiously enough, was dedicated to 
George Washington. 

It must not be presumed that our schoolmasters of the 
time just previous to the Eevolution were all tories. In- 
deed, there were among them some of the most ardent advo- 
cates of the American cause. Philip Fithian was one of 
these. He became a chaplain in the Continental army and 
died in the service. Dr. Joseph Warren, who was killed at 
the battle of Bunker Hill, had been master of the Eoxbury 
Grammar School. And Nathan Hale, " the Martyr Spy," 
gave up his school at New London, Connecticut, to enlist 
in the American army, at the first news of the battle of 
Lexington. 

These men were among the most lovable and beloved of 
our early patriots, and their memory should be cherished in 
our school traditions. Dr. Eneas Munson of New Haven 
said of Nathan Hale : 

" He was almost six feet in height, perfectly proportioned, and 
in figure and deportment he was the most manly man I have ever 
met. His chest was broad ; his muscles were firm ; his face wore a 
most benign expression ; his complexion was roseate ; his hair was 
soft and light-brown in color, and his speech was rather low, sweet, 
and musical. His personal beauty and grace of manner were most 
charming. Why, all the girls in New Haven fell in love with him, 

^ Only a portion of tins work was published, and the manuscript is said to 
have come into the possession of the proprietors of Webster's dictionary. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 123 

and wept tears of real sorrow when they heard of his sad fate. In 
dress he was always neat ; he was quick to lend a helping hand to 
a heing in distress^ brute or human ; was overflowing with good 
humor, and was the idol of all his acquaintances." ^ 

A brief note relating to Hale's characteristics as a teacher 
has come down to us from Samuel Green, one of his pupils 
at New London : 

" His manners were engaging and genteel ; his scholars all loved 
him. While he was not severe, there was something determined 
in the man, which gave him a control of the boys that was remark- 
able. He had a way of imparting his views to others in a simple, 
natural method, without ostentation or egotism, which is a rare 
gift." 2 

The pay of colonial schoolmasters can be adequately con- 
sidered only in a comprehensive view of colonial wages, cur- 
rency, and prices. This is too large a subject to be treated 
here ; but the story of colonial schools ought not to be left 
without some notes upon it. In the seventeenth century, 
the salary of the masters of grammar schools commonly 
ranged from twenty to sixty pounds per annum. Twenty 
pounds is so frequently mentioned, that it may almost be 
regarded as the standard, or perhaps the minimum rate, 
especially in the earliest times. The fees of the pupils 
were sometimes additional to the salary fixed by the school 
authorities, but more frequently included in it. Some men- 
tion is made, also, of gifts which the master might fairly 
expect from his pupils. For these there was abundant 
English precedent. Of more importance was the fact that 
a dwelling house was commonly provided for the master, 
with a garden plot, and sometimes a larger piece of land. 
This was additional to his regular stipend. In the eigh- 
teenth century, we find salaries mounting sometimes to one 
hundred pounds a year. 

1 Quoted in Appleton's Cydo'pcRdia of American hiography. 

2 Partridge, Nathan Hale, p. 49. 



124 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Gold and silver were scarce in the colonies, and in the 
earlier days the master was often paid "in kind." Mr. 
Dillaway, in his history of the Eoxbury Grammar School, 
presents a facsimile of the " covenant " entered into by the 
feoffees of that school, in February, 1668-9, with John Prud- 
den, schoolmaster. This master was employed to instruct 
the children of the " Donors " for one full year " in all scho- 
lasticall, morall, and theologicall discipline," 

'*' In consideration whereof y^ aforesayd feoffees (not enjoyning 
nor leting y" said Prudden from teaching any other children, pro- 
vided y^ number thereof doe not hinder y® profiting of the fore- 
named youth) do promise and engage (for the due recom pence of 
his labour) to allow y^ said John Prudden y* full and just summe 
of twenty-five pounds : y* one halfe to be payed on y^ 29 of Sep- 
tember next ensuing y® date hereof, and the other halfe on the 25 
of March next ensuing, i.e., in y" year (70), y^ said £25 to be 
payed by William Park and Robert Williams, their heirs and ad- 
ministrators at y^ upper-mills in Roxberry, three quarters in Indian 
Corne or Peas and y® other fourth part in Barley, all good and 
merchandable, at price currant in y® countrey rate, at y* days of 
payment." ^ 

Until 1709, the yearly salary of the teachers of the Had- 
ley school, already mentioned, was from X30 to X40, payable 
in produce. After that date, payment was made in province 
bills, beginning at £26 per annum, and increasing to £40 as 
the m-oney depreciated in value. Out of this salary the 
young . schoolmaster paid his board, which cost him from 
4s. 8d. to 5s. a week when his salary was about £40, and 3s. 6d. 
to 3s. 9d. when the salary was £30 or less. It is estimated 
that, after deducting the cost of this item, there remained a 
clear yearly income equivalent to from sixty to seventy 
dollars, counting six shillings to the dollar. The neighbor- 
ing town of Northampton paid the masters of her grammar 
school, all educated men, the equivalent of eiglity dollars a 
year and board, down to the time of the Revolution.^ 

1 Op. cit, pp. 30-31. 

2 Am. Journ. Ed., XXVII., p. 152. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 125 

An interesting excerpt from the town records of Hadley 
is given in the volume on The IIo;pkins fund, grammar school 
and academy in Hadley : 

"Jan. 22, 1677. Voted by the town that Mr. Younglove shall 
have for his teaching school the next year the use of the House 
and Homestead belonging to the school with twelve Akars of land 
given by John Barnard and thirty pounds besides which shall be 
raised by the remainder of the school land the scollards and the 
Towne. 

" Voted by the Towne that for the year ensuing all male chil- 
dren ffrom six years ould to twelve shall be compellable to pay to 
the scoole such as goe after tenn shillings by the year and they that 
goe not ffive shillings by the year and all others above the age ex- 
pressed that are found Illiterate and goe not to paie ffive Shillings 
by the year, this order to begin its date May 1st next ensuing." ^ 

In the larger schools, the master was sometimes obliged 
to employ an assistant, or " usher," at his own expense. 
But this burden came to be borne in the same manner as the 
support of the master himself. The authorities were doubt- 
less glad to see their school prosper, and unwilling to allow 
the teacher to be burdened with such expense because of his 
success in attracting pupils. 

The number of pupils in these schools varied greatly, 
^gidius Luyck had made a marked success of the school at 
New Amsterdam when he was able to show an attendance 
of twenty. One hundred was noXmcommon number in the 
Boston Latin School near the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. Near the middle of that century, Josiah Pierce 
was teaching the Hopkins Grammar School at Hadley with 
all the way from five to thirty pupils in attendance. He 
complained that the most of the parents let their children 
play about the streets rather than send them to school. 

The enumeration of pupils in the Eoxbury school for the 
year 1770 is suggestive. It is given as follows : ^ 



1 Op. cit., p. 65. 

2 DiLLAWAY, Free Sclwole in Roxhurie, p. 66. 



V 



126 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Scholars. 

Latin 9 

Cypherers 20 

Writers 17 

Testament 10 

Psalter 10 

Spellers 19 

The schools were attended by boys only, and these came 
for the most part from the more prosperous families and 
those highest in social distinction. But this remark must 
be taken with many qualifications. Men of wealth, espe- 
cially at the south, often employed private tutors, as we 
have seen, instead of sending their boys to a public school. 
On the other hand, much care was taken to give promising 
sons of poor parents a chance. There was no portion of the 
community that held learning in greater esteem than those 
families in which it was out of the question to send the 
whole troop of sons to a higher school, and one was elected 
to this distinction as representative of all. 

The chosen son was sent to school as one dedicated to the 
service of God. There was a thought of old Hebrew prece- 
dents. Sometimes the eldest was taken, because Jehovah 
had claimed all first-born of men and of animals as pecu- 
liarly his own. Or if the eldest were a dullard or otherwise 
unworthy, another went in his stead, as the birthright was 
given unto the sons of Joseph, in place of Keuben. Some- 
times, too, in the large families of that day, the one dedi- 
cated was given on the principle of the tithe. So the 
father of Benjamin Franklin set apart the young Benjamin 
for the ministry, and sent him to the Latin school, as the 
tenth of his sons. 

The selective process was only begun when the boy was 
sent to the grammar school. The more competent masters 
were mighty winnowers, who rendered the community a 
noble service in finding possible scholars, and sending them 
on toward higher things. Ian Maclaren has told us how 



COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOLARS 127 

it was done in Scotland, in his tale of the old Dominie who 
" had an unerring scent for ' pairts ' in his laddies." " It 
was Latin Domsie hunted for as for fine gold, and when he 
found the smack of it in a lad he rejoiced openly. He 
counted it a day in his life when he knew certainly that 
he had hit on another scholar." New England was in many 
ways like Scotland ; and Scotch masters became plentiful in 
our middle and southern colonies. It was no less true here 
than in Drumtochty that when such a boy had been dis- 
covered "his brothers and sisters would give their wages, 
and the family would live on skim milk and oat cake [or 
their colonial equivalents] to let him have his chance." 

NOTE 

The works newly referred to in this chapter either belong distinctly to 
the literature of American educational history, and are entered accordingly 
in our general bibliography ; or are well-known works of general literature, 
which call for no further mention than appears in the foot-note citations. 



CHAPTER VII 
COLONIAL SCHOOLING AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

The studies of the grammar schools were necessarily deter- 
mined by the relation of those schools to the colleges. 
They taught such subjects as entered into the college admis- 
sion requirements. These requirements at Harvard College 
appear as follows in that early apology for Massachusetts 
Bay Colony, the New England First Fruits : " When any 
Scholar is able to understand Tully, or such like classicall 
Latine Author extempore, and make and speake true Latine 
in Verse and Prose, suo ut aiunt Marte ; And decline per- 
fectly the Paradigm's of JSfounes, and Verhes in the Greek 
tongue : Let him then and not before be capable of admission 
into the Colledge."i 

The laws for Harvard College drawn up in 1734 contain 
the following prescription : " Whoever upon examination by 
the President, and two at least of the Tutors, shall be found 
able extempore to read, construe, and parse Tully, Virgil, 'or 
such like common classical Latin authors, and to write true 
Latin in prose, and to be skilled in making Latin verse, or 
at least in the rules of Prosodia, and to read, construe, and 
parse ordinary Greek, as in the New Testament, Isocrates, 
or such like, and decline the paradigms of Greek nouns 
and verbs, having withal good testimony of his past blame- 

1 The Latin text of this rule is given by Cotton Mather as follows: " Cui- 
cunque fuerit peritia legendi Ciceronem, aut quemvis alium ejusmodi classi- 
cum autorem ex tempore, et congrue loqnendi ac scribendi Latine facultas, 
oratione tarn soluta quim ligata, suo (ut aiunt) marte, et ad unguem inflectendi 
Graecorum nominum, etverborum paradigmata ; hie adraissionem in collegium 
jure potest expectare ; quicunque vero destitutus fuerit hac peritia, adrais- 
sionem sibi neutiquam vindicet." Magnalia, B. IV. pp. 132-134, quoted in 
Peirce, History of Harvard University, Appendix, pp. 48-49. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 129 

less behaviour, shall be looked upon as qualified for admis- 
sion into Harvard College." ^ The most noticeable change 
here is the addition of Vergil and of a Greek text. 

Yale College was governed for some years after its found- 
ing by the Harvard laws. In 1745 the first complete 
body of laws drawn up for the use of the younger institution 
was adopted. The requirements for admission were then 
stated as follows : " That none may expect tQ be admitted 
into this College unless upon Examination of the President 
and Tutors, They shall be found able Extempore to Eead, 
Construe and Parce Tully, Virgil and the Greek Testament ; 
and to write True Latin in Prose and to understand the 
Rules of Prosodia, and Common Arithmetic, and Shall bring 
Sufficient Testimony of his Blameless and inoffensive Life." ^ 
Here the addition of arithmetic is significant. 

The requirements prescribed by the College of New Jersey 
in 1748 are of the same general tenor ; but it was not till 
1760 that candidates for admission at Princeton were 
required to " understand the principal rules of vulgar arith- 
metic." ^ 

At William and Mary College, the only entrance exam- 
ination prescribed in the statutes adopted in 1727, was that 
of candidates for foundation scholarships, and it was intended 
only to discover " whether they have made due Progress in 
their Latin and Greek." It was particularly enjoined that 
" no Blockhead or lazy Fellow in his Studies be elected." 

1 Peiece, History of Harvard University, Appendix, p. 125. 

The diarj' of Dr. Holyoke gives an account of an entrance examination held 
in 1742. Four boys were examined by the president and three tutors, as 
follows : " Tutors, 3d jEneid, 15 lines, Presi'dt, 2d ^neid, 24 lines, Virgil. — 
Tutors, 3d Catiline, Presid't, 2d Catiline, Tully. — Tutors, 12th Luke, Presid't, 
25th Matthew, Greek Testament." The following themes were then given 
out : "Sapientia praestat viribus," "Labor improbns omnia vincit," "Semper 
avarus eget." Young Holyoke finished his theme six days later. Op. cit., 
p. 238, foot-note. 

2 Dr. E. C. Broome has kindly permitted me to make use of a transcript 
of this rule, which he made from a manuscript copy, preserved at New Haven, 
and bearing the signature of Thomas Clap. 

8 Maclean, History of the College of New Jersey, pp. 132-133, 272. 

9 



130 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The regulations for the grammar school connected with the 
college give us a little additional information, but not much : 

" Let the Latin and Greek Tongues be well taught. We assign 
Four Years to the Latin, and Two to the Greek. As for Rudi- 
ments and Grammars, and Classick Authors of each Tongue, let 
them teach the same Books, which by Law or Custom are used 
in the Schools of England. Nevertheless, we allow the School- 
master the liberty, if he has any observations on the Latin or 
Greek Grammars, or any of the Authors that are taught in his 
School, that with the Approbation of the President, he may dictate 
them to the Scholars. Let the Master take special Care, that if 
the Author is never so well approved on other Accounts, he teach 
no such Part of him to his Scholars, as insinuates any Thing 
against Religion or good Morals. And because nothing contributes 
so much to the Learning of Languages, as dayly Dialogues, and 
familiar Speaking together, in the Language they are learning ; let 
the Master therefore take Care that out of the Colloquies of Corde- 
rius and Erasmus, and Others, who have employed their Labours 
this Way, the Scholars may learn aptly to express their Meaning 
to each other." ^ 

Not much of detailed information has come to light re- 
specting the sequence of exercises in the actual course of 
school instruction. It seems probable that there was but 
little variation for several generations from the traditional 
course of the grammar schools of Old England. 

From the allusions and more direct testimony of Cotton 
Mather and John Barnard, we learn that in the days of 
Ezekiel Cheever, the master's Accidence was used by begin- 
ners in the Boston Latin School, and that it was followed 
by Lilly's grammar. The text authorized and prescribed in 
England is doubtless referred to in the latter designation. 
-i^Esop's Fahles, the Colloquies of Corderius, the JEneid, 
Cicero's De ojfficiis and orations {Pro Archia poeta being parti- 
cularly mentioned), Cato, and Ovid's Metamoiylioses were 
read. An exercise in turning one of the fables into verse is 
referred to. 

1 Charter and statutes of the College of JVillam and Mary. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 131 

We have a somewhat more particular account of the 
studies at the same school in the time of Master Lovell, a 
few years before the Revolution. ^ The only requirement 
for admission at that time was the ability to read well ; 
but in the private school where the small boys learned to 
read, they were also taught to write, and were introduced to 
English grammar through the medium of Dilworth's speller. 
Even after he had been admitted to the Latin school, at the 
age of seven, the boy whose recollections are the basis of 
this account was sent to a private writing school from eleven 
to twelve each forenoon for three years, where he did noth- 
ing but write ; and if his memoranda are correctly inter- 
preted, he went during the same period, from three o'clock 
to five each afternoon to a public English school, in which 
reading and writing were taught in the same room, to both 
boys and girls, from seven to fourteen years of age. In the 
school last named, the New England Primer was used, and 
Dilworth's spelling book, with the Bible as the only reading 
book. The master set sums for his pupils in a manuscript 
book, but went no further than the rule of three. During a 
part of this boy's school days, English grammar and geog- 
raphy were taught in only one school in Boston, and that 
was a private venture. He never saw a map in those years 
of schooling, except one that he did not understand, in an 
edition of Csesar ; and Lowth's English grammar was studied 
by his class in college. 

These notes throw light on the studies of the Latin school 
mainly by showing what it did not teach. But information 
of a more positive sort follows. In the Latin school itself, 
the boys studied Latin from eight o'clock to eleven in the 

^ Schools of the olden time in Boston. Article in Tlie Commnn School 
Journal, XII., pp. 311-315, October 15, 1850. The reminiscences were 
"found among the papers of an eminent clergyman, who was educated in 
Boston, just before the Revolution." It does not appear why the clergyman's 
name is withheld. The editor, Mr. Wm. B. Fowle, adds notes from his own 
recollections. These reminiscences are reproduced in the Am. Journ. Ed., 
XIII., pp. 745-747, and XXVII., pp. 79-80. The reference given with the 
latter insertion is incorrect. 



132 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

forenoon, and from one in the afternoon till dark. They be- 
gan with Cheever's Latin Accidence, which was followed by 
Ward's Lilly's Latin grammar. The reading consisted of 
^sop, with a translation ; Eutropius, also with a translation ; 
Corderius, Ovid's Metamor piloses, Vergil's Georgics and ^neid, 
Caesar, and Cicero. Of these, Caesar and the Georgics seem 
to have been less commonly used in grammar schools than 
the other works mentioned. In the sixth year of the course, 
the boy was half through Vergil. The master permitted the 
reading of such translations of Vergil as Trappe's and Dry- 
den's. Composition was begun, apparently, at about the 
same time with the reading of ^sop or of Eutropius, and 
Clarke's Introduction to writing Latin was the first text-book 
used. Near the end of the course, Horace was read, and 
Latin verses were composed with the help of the Gradus ad 
Parnassum. 

One or two additional items appear in the recollections of 
Harrison C-ray Otis, United States senator, who entered the 
Latin school in 1773. "The school," he says, "was divided 
into seven classes. A separate bench or form was allotted 
to each, besides a shipping form, appropriated for a few boys 
who were intended to be pushed forward one year in ad- 
vance. The books studied the first year were Cheever's 
Accidence, a small Nomenclature [Nomenclator ? ] , and 
Corderius' Colloquies. The second year, Aesop's Eables, and 
towards the close of it, Eutropius and Ward's Lilly's Gram- 
mar. The third year Eutropius and (Irammar continued, 
and a book commenced called Clarke's Introduction. In 
the fourth year, the fourth form, as well as the fifth and 
sixth, being furnished with desks, commenced ' making 
Latin,' as the phrase was, and to the books used by the third 
form Caesar's Commentaries were added. After this were 
read in succession by the three upper classes, Tully's Ora- 
tions, the first books of the Aeneid, and the highest classes 
dipped into Xenophon and Homer. School opened at 7 in 
summer and 8 in winter, A. M., and at 1 P. M. throughout 
the year. It was ended at 11a. m. and 5 p. m., at which 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 133 

hours the greater part went to writing-school for an hour at 
a time — but a portion remained and took lessons^in writing 
of 'Master James,' son of the Preceptor, and some young 
girls then came in to school." ^ 

Latin was apparently three-quarters of the curriculum in 
the most of the grammar schools, or more likely nine-tenths 
of it, or nineteen-tweutieths. Of the instruction in Greek, 
we get some hint in the " eminent clergyman's " recollec- 
tions of the Boston Latin School, referred to above. The 
boy who was half through Vergil in the sixth year of his 
course, began at that time the study of Ward's Greek gram- 
mar. After this came the reading of the Greek Testament, 
in connection with which the boys were allowed to use 
Beza's Latin translation. This was followed with five or 
six books of Homer's Iliad, accompanied by Clarke's transla- 
tion with notes, and that completed the course in Greek. 

This boy's Latin-School course must have been alto- 
gether about seven years in length. He entered college at 
the age of fourteen years and three months. There he found 
that in Latin and Greek he was equal to the best in the 
senior class. Sallust and Xenophon were the only authors 
read in college that he had not already studied. 

No mention is made in these recollections of any studies 
in the Latin school -other than those in Latin and Greek, | 
with the single exception that the student, in the sixth year, | 
" for the first time attempted English composition, by trans- 
lating Caesar's Commentaries." It is evident, however, that i 
the studies of such a school were not so exclusively formal 
and so barren of ideas as they are sometimes represented. 
The authors read were selected, in part at least, with a view 
to the content of their works. Their moral worth was a 
prime consideration. But in the reading of Eutropius the 
boys got a fair introduction to Roman history. Yet this 
again depended largely upon the skill of the teacher; for 
many a school-boy might construe a Latin author faithfully 

1 Jenks, Historical sketch, p. 36. 



134 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

without having in the end any idea of what that author 
had said. 

Grammar school masters in the colonies, like their brethren 
in England, raised their voice against the demand that they 
should teach little children their ABC. Stringent provis- 
ions were sometimes adopted to protect them against this 
imposition. Yet all but the best of these free schools 
might be found slipping back, whenever there was any re- 
laxation of scholarly ambition ; so that many of them must 
have been in fact, during a large part of their career, mere 
reading schools which gave a smattering of Latin to an 
occasional promising pupil. 

The studies of the writing-arithmetic side of education, 
too, kept working over into the sacred enclosure. Some- 
times the grammar master gave a little instruction of this 
sort; and sometimes he gave more, and openly advertised 
the fact. Sometimes a special teacher of these subjects was 
regularly attached to the school. The eighteenth century 
gave more and more countenance to this innovation, partly 
because of the growing influence of the commercial class, 
and partly, we may believe, because of some increase of hos- 
pitality toward studies not distinguished by tradition. 

The new studies so admitted were of a commercial and 
mathematical sort : arithmetic and merchants' accounts ; 
geometry, navigation, and surveying ; and some closely re- 
lated subjects. Tlie enlargement of commercial operations, 
the growth of American shipping, particularly that engaged 
in the whaling industry, and the rapid extension of the zone 
of regular settlements, had much to do with the demand for 
studies such as these. Of course such studies, previous to 
the middle of the eighteenth century, had no connection 
with preparation for college. They represented the intrusion 
of a different view of the function of the school. They 
smacked of trade. The notion that they might have some 
sort of educational value in and of themselves, was not then 
abroad. Education in its several aspects was viewed as 
something institutional and practical. It was not for the 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 135 

perfecting of human character, but for the training up of 
men to some sort of efficiency and public usefulness. The 
studies of the writing-mathematics group were not dis- 
counted because of their " practical " character, but because 
they were thought to minister to a lower and more private 
use than did the regular studies of the Latin school. 

There was, however, one side of instruction which took 
account of the improvement of personal character for its 
own sake, and that was the inculcation of religious doctrine 
and the improvement of manners. Moral instruction was 
rarely prescribed as such, though Cato's Distichs supplied 
a compendium of moral precepts. For the rest, religion 
and manners covered practically the whole field. The 
doctrines of religion were all-important. The trouble- 
some question of the relation of religion to morals had to be 
considered, to be sure, in the pulpit if not in the school. 
The Calvinistic communions, with their doctrine of a pre- 
destination that had nothing to do with moral considera- 
tions, were continually on their guard against the dangers of 
antinomianism ; and how much of later American theology 
has been concerned with adjustments between the doctrine 
of salvation and the large human sense of right and wrong ! 

The subject matter of instruction in this domain was the 
catechism and reports of the sermons which the pupils were 
required to hear on Sundays and special occasions. In- 
struction in manners was immediately practical. In the 
early Quaker scheme of education there was much insist- 
ence on imparting a knowledge of the laws of the land. 
This sort of teaching, so strangely neglected in our own 
day, received but little notice in other colonial schemes of 
education. The ability to read and understand the " capital 
laws " of the country was, however, one object proposed in 
the educational legislation of Massachusetts in 1642 and in 
that of Connecticut in 1650. 

We have the text of the rules adopted for two or three of 
our earlier grammar schools, and are able to get from them 
some idea of the ordinary working of those institutions. 



136 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

When the first school committee was appointed for the 
oversight of the town school of Dorchester, Massachusetts, 
in 1645, certain rules and orders were adopted in town 
meeting for their guidance. School hours were fixed as 
follows : From March 1 to September 30, from seven in the 
morning to five in the afternoon ; for the remainder of the 
year, from eight o'clock to four. An intermission was pro- 
vided for, from eleven to one every day ; except that on the 
second day of the week, from twelve to one, there should be 
a public examination of the scholars in what they had learned 
on the Sabbath, and an inquiry into their conduct on that 
day. The schoolmaster was required to instruct such as 
were sent to him, whether their parents were rich or poor ; 
and his instruction should be not only in " humane learning 
and good literature," but in " good manners and dutiful be- 
havior towards all." Every day in the week there should 
be morning and evening prayer, and at two o'clock the 
scholars should be examined in the catechism. 

The last and longest rule related to the correction of 
pupils : " 9thly. And because the rod of correction is an 
ordinance of God necessary sometimes to be dispensed unto 
children, but such as may easily be abused by overmuch 
severity and rigor on the one hand, or by overmuch indul- 
gence and lenity on the other," the schoolmaster should 
have authority to minister correction without respect of 
persons, and should not be hindered in the exercise of that 
authority. Nevertheless, parents who should think the 
master too severe might expostulate with him, and if still 
dissatisfied might appeal to the " wardens " (school commit- 
tee) ; and the wardens were empowered in such a case eirther 
to dismiss the children of such parents from the school, or 
if the complaint seemed well founded, to propose to the in- 
habitants that the master be discharged. A similar proposal 
might be presented by the wardens if the master were found 
to be too lenient or guilty of " any other great neglect of 
duty." For the rest, the wardens were authorized to direct 
the affairs of the school in such manner as they should judge 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 137 

" most conducible for the glory of God and the training up 
of the children of the town in religion, learning, and 
civility." ^ 

The rules for the Hopkins Grammar School at New- 
Haven (1684) prescribed still more terrific school hours — 
from six in the morning to four in the afternoon during the 
winter months, extended to five in the afternoon during 
the summer ; with a daily intermission from eleven to one. 
The boys were to be examined Monday mornings upon the 
Sunday sermons ; and from one to three o'clock of Saturday 
afternoons was to " be improved by y® M' in Catechizing of his 
Schollars y* are Capeable." All boys from the county of New 
Haven should be instructed by the master " upon his sallary 
accompt only, otherwise Gratis." 

The daily routine in this school began with a short prayer, 
after which " the Master shall Assigne to every of his Schol- 
lars theire places of Sitting according to theire degrees of 
learning." Then, " having theire Parts, or Lessons appointed 
them," the unfortunate youngsters were required to " Keepe 
theire Seats, & stir not out of Dores," except as the master 
might give leave to one or two at a time. The strict in- 
junctions against fighting, quarrelling, calling bad names, 
and the like, is suggestive of disorders which the masters 
had to contend with. It is more than likely that occa- 
sional outbreaks were the saving of youthful constitutions, 
which might otherwise have gone to rack and ruin for sheer 
want of change and exercise. Monitors were appointed to 
keep track of delinquencies, and at appointed times there was 
a clearing off of scores. Truancy and tardiness are among 
the faults provided against. One breathes more freely at 
the thought of out-door air called up by the mention of 
these misdemeanors. The master was charged to " give 
them due Correccion to y® degree of y® offence. And y* 
all Correccions be w*^ Moderacion." ^ 

"When Daniel Munson was engaged as teacher of the 

1 Am. Journ. Eel, XXVII., pp. 106-107. 

2 Id., XXVIIL, p. 303. 



138 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Hopkins School in 1729, it was agreed that he should 
"keep the gramer schoU . . . about seven hours in the 
day in the winter season and about eight hours in the 
summer season in each day and not to exceed twelve 
play dayes in the year." ^ 

The code of regulations for the grammar school connected 
with William and Mary College has been referred to. The 
following paragraph from that document should be added : 

" Special care likewise must be taken of their Morals, that none 
of the Scholars presume to tell a Lie, or Curse or Swear, or to take 
or do any Thing obscene, or Quarrel and Fight, or play at Cards or 
Dice, or set in to Drinking, or do any Thing else that is contrary 
to good Manners. And that all such Faults may be so much the 
more easily detected, the Master shall chuse some of the most 
trusty Scholars both for Publick and Clandestine Observators, to 
give him an Account of all such Transgressions, and according to 
the degrees of heynousness of the Crime, let the Discipline be 
used without Respect of Persons." 

Boy life in those old schools must have been very different 
from that which we see in the secondary schools of our 
day. The boys were younger, to begin with. At the age 
represented by our high schools, a colonial boy would be in 
college, or have finished his schooling altogether. Such 
youngsters could not be expected to form clubs and edit 
papers and engage in interscholastic athletics. Not only 
their youth, but the habits and notions of the period were 
against it. Besides, nearly all of the good boy-hours in 
the whole year must be passed in the school room under 
the eye of the master. The main hope for anything like a 
good boy-time was in playing hookey or playing in school. 

In the few hours that could be given to out-door sports, 
they had skating and coasting 2 in the winter, and in 
summer swimming, and a variety of games, including some 

1 Bacon, Hopkins Grammar School, p. 57. 

2 A contemporary account of the famous interview of the Boston Latin 
School boys with General Haldimand (not General Gage) in re the injury to 
their coast, is given in Mr. Jenks' Historical sketch, p. 40. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 139 

with ball and bat — remote forerunners of base-ball. 
Samuel Moody, the master of the Dummer School, paid 
great attention to the physical exercise of his boys, and 
was their leader and director in the regular practice of 
swimming. 

The attempt was made here, as in England, to hold the 
boys to the use of Latin in their sports as well as during 
school hours. But the endeavor met with very little 
success. The William and Mary Grammar School regula- 
tions contained the direction, "If there are any sort of 
Plays or Diversions in Use among them, which are not to 
be found extant in any printed Books, let the Master com- 
pose and dictate to his Scholars Colloquies fit for such sorts 
of Plays, that they may learn at all Times to speak Latin in 
apt and proper Terms." 

In the larger schools the boys were divided into " forms," 
those in the same class sitting together on one bench. The 
advance from one form to the next higher seems to have 
been made at yearly intervals. There was also a change of 
position from time to time within the class, according to the 
goodness or badness of the pupil's recitations. Emulation 
was freely employed, and the position of head of the class 
had strong attractions for some young scholars. 

In Ezekiel Cheever's time at Boston, John Barnard had a 
competitor who " beat me by the help of a brother in the 
upper class, who stood behind master with the accidence 
open for him to read out of ; by which means he could recite 
his [ ] three and four times in a forenoon, and the 

same in the afternoon ; but I who had no such help, and 
tvas obliged to commit all to memory, could not keep pace 
with him ; so he would be always one lesson before me." ^ 
The seven-year-old John was so distressed by this affair 
that he left school for a time. The incident shows, among 
other things, that the recitations in this school were individ- 
ual, although the grading and classification of the pupils 
were regularly provided for. 

1 Quoted by Jenks, Historical sketch, pp. 26-27. 



140 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

We find some little account of the houses in which these 
schools were kept. A writer already referred to in the 
Independent Beji,ector (New York City) for November 8, 
1753, made an earnest plea for the establishment of public 
grammar schools in the province of New York, in the course 
of which he told, by way of illustration, of such schools 
" in the Colonies to the Eastward." It seems probable that 
the county grammar schools of Connecticut were especially 
intended. " They are built upon the Commons, contain but 
one Eoom, are tight and warm, and not more costly nor 
larger than a common Log Cottage. The Master suits him- 
self with a Lodging in the Village, and so do his Pupils 
generally at a very cheap Eate." ^ 

Not infrequently elsewhere the school house and the 
house of the master were one and the same building. This 
seems to have been the case at Boston during some part of 
the seventeenth century. But at another time we find in the 
Boston records a lot mentioned as lying between the school 
house and the house of the master. In the opening years 
of the eighteenth century, Boston built a new residence for 
the master and very soon after a new school house. From 
the selectmen's minutes, a pretty definite idea of this school 
house can be got. It was forty feet long by twenty wide, 
and eleven feet high in the studding. There were eight 
windows below and five in the roof. The building was 
clapboarded and shingled. There were stairs to the second 
floor, and a ladder from that floor to the bell. The main 
room was divided by a partition — the purpose of which 
does not appear. There were three rows of benches for 
the boys on each side of the school room. 

Such, at least, was the building for which the selectmen 
contracted ; and for erecting it the builder was to receive 
one hundred pounds, together with the materials of the old 
building, while he provided the materials for the new. It 
was in this building that Benjamin Franklin went to 
school. 

1 Op. cit., p. 202. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 141 

This school house was pulled down in 1748 to make way 
for an extension of King's Chapel, and again a new house 
was erected for the school, across the way.^ This was a 
brick building, nearly square, with a cupola in which the 
bell hung. It had a school room on the main floor, and 
some use was made of an attic room over this. 

One who was a pupil in this building described the 
school-room as follows : " The Master's desk was at the 
south [rear] end on the right side of the back door. . . 
The Usher's desk was in the northeasterly corner ; between 
it and the [front] door was a small, or short seat and desk, 
in which a few of the first [lowest] class sat at times, as, I 
think, for want of room with the others ; between this desk 
and the door came down a bell-rope. Then going round 
against the sun were the seats of the third and fourth 
classes, on the west side were the first and second, and on 
the east side were the fifth, sixth and seventh classes ; the 
lowest class was without desks and not elevated from the 
floor." Another old-time school-boy adds to this account : 
" The back forms were two feet higher than the front, the 
windows so high that the boys could not ' shin up ' to see 
the soldiers passing." Still another gives these additional 
items : " The boys of the younger forms sat on benches, 
with a box underneath in which to put their books ; but 
after the fourth form, when they began to make Latin, they 
had desks m front of them on which to write." 

These descriptions suggest a very plain and diminutive 
copy of one of those impressive old school-rooms of the 
English public schools which are so admirably pictured in 
Ackermann's work.^ 

1 The town was dreadfully excited over this change. It was carried through 
the town meeting by a vote of 205 to 197. On this occasion, the wit of the 
town, Joseph Green, Esq., wrote a little skit that has become famous : 

"' A fig for your learning ! I tell you the Town 

To make the chiirch larger, must pull the school down.' 

' Unluckily spoken,' replied Master Birch, — 

' Then learning, I fear, stops the growth of the church.'' " 

"^ See hibliographical notes to chapter 2. The school-rooms of Eton, St. 
Paul's, Merchant Taylors', and Harrow are especially suggested. The two 



142 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

It is fair to presume that these Boston school houses were 
among the best of their time in this country, and that the 
worse provision for housing the schools, in many other 
places assumed all sorts and degrees of badness. A letter 
has been preserved which was addressed by the school- 
master at Eoxbury to one of the feoffees of the Eoxbury 
grammar school, about 1681. " Of inconveniences," it reads, 
" I shall instance in no other than that of the school-house, 
the confused and shattered and nastie posture that it is in, 
not fitting for to reside in ; the glass broken, and thereupon 
very raw and cold, the floor very much broken and torn up 
to kindle fires, the hearth spoiled, the seats, some burnt and 
others out of kilter, so that one had as well nigh as goods 
keep school in a hog stie as in it." ^ 

It is a very interesting picture which Philip Vickers 
Fithian gives of Nomini Hall, the home of Councillor Eob- 
ert Carter, in Westmoreland County, Virgmia, where he 
served as tutor of Mr. Carter's children. ^ The "Great- 
House " on this estate stood at the centre of a large square, 
each corner of which was occupied by a smaller building — 
the stable, the coach house, the work house, and the school 
house respectively. 

" The School House is forty five feet long, from East to West, 
& twenty-seven from North to South ; It has five well-finished, 
convenient Booms, three below stairs, & two above ; It is built 
with Brick a Story and a half high with Dormant Windows ; In 
each Boom is a fire ; In the large Boom below-Staii'S we keep our 
School ; the other two Booms below which are smaller are allowed 
to M'. Bandolph the Clerk ; The Boom above the School-Boom 
Ben and I live in ; & the other Boom above Stairs belongs to 

views which Ackermann presents of the room for the grammar school and 
the separate room for the writing school at Christ's Hos])ital, are interesting. 
The original material for an account of the successive buildings of the Boston 
Latin School are given in the great memorial Catalogue of that school pub- 
lished in 1886. Cf. the account of the school houses at Dorchester given in 
the Am. Journ. Ed., XXVII., p. 108. 

1 DiLLAWAY, op. cit., p. 47. 

^ Journal and letters, pp. 127-132. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 143 

Harry & Bob. Five of us live in this House with great neatness, 
& convenience ; each one has a Bed to himself." 

Here Fithian taught his little school of three boys and 
five girls. His accommodations were more comfortable than 
those provided for the masters of public schools at the 
north, and it is doubtful whether any better could have 
been found in the whole south at that time. 

The idea of a " free school " seems to have carried with 
it the thought of some permanent revenue apart from pupils' 
fees. It has been shown in the account of individual schools 
how various were the methods followed in providing for 
such revenue. A free school was commonly free to a lim- 
ited number of pupils, or to such as were unable to pay. 
But the greater number of pupils paid a regular fee, 
which seems in most cases not to have gone above twenty 
shillings a year. Pupils were sometimes required in addition 
to provide each a fixed amount of wood for fuel. 

In Massachusetts, the assessment and collection of school 
fees was found less satisfactory than the laying of a town 
tax for the support of schools ; and accordingly by the 
middle of the eighteenth century the Massachusetts gram- 
mar schools had generally become free, in the sense in 
which the term is now used.^ 

We have seen, in the chapter on colonial school sys- 
tems, how the general direction of public education was 
gradually passing over from the ecclesiastical to the civil 
power. Our New England colonies and Maryland added 
some new impetus to this movement. We must now make 
note of the fact that the immediate control of individual 
institutions has followed a somewhat different course of 
development from that of general systems of administra- 
tion. It does not follow that, because the rules and stand- 
ards of public instruction are prescribed by civil authority, 
the several schools are managed by public corporations. 

1 Martin, Massachusetts puhlic school system, pp. 51-52, 



144 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

In England, even at the present time, there is a well-articu- 
lated state system of elementary education, largely sup- 
ported by public funds, and carefully inspected by public 
officials. But more than half of the schools by which this 
education is provided are under the immediate manage- 
ment and control of certain religious societies. At the 
same time the secondary schools of England are for the 
most' part under the management of various corporations — 
a separate one for each institution — with hardly more than 
the shadow of a state system over them all. 

We shall perhaps best understand the development of 
our American types of school administration if we look first 
at the systems of college administration, which had eventu- 
ally much influence upon the lower schools. 

The form of external organization and control adopted 
for our earlier colonial institutions was largely determined 
by the forms with which the colonists had been familiar in 
the mother country, yet those forms were somewhat modi- 
fied almost from the beginning. The common type of organ- 
ization in English colleges was that in which the master 
or master and fellows of the school constituted a legal cor- 
poration, having full control of the institution in respect to 
both its financial and its educational concerns. The most 
obvious disadvantage of this system was that it gave to 
the teaching body the management of the funds out of 
which they themselves were paid. 

It was plainly necessary that some check be added to this 
system, to prevent the misapplication of funds, and such 
a safeguard was commonly provided by the designation of 
some " third person " to act as visitor of the institution. 
By the " visitation " of an establishment was meant a formal 
inspection by the official visitor with a view to the correc- 
tion of abuses, and particularly of any failure to conduct 
the institution in accordance with the true intent of the 
foundation. Under the common law, the right of visitation 
rests with the founder, and with those who may be desig- 
nated by him as his successors. And the founder is the 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 145 

donor of the first endowment, however insignificant it may 
be as compared with later gifts to the same object. It was 
a common practice of the founders of educational institu- 
tions to make the bishop of the diocese or some other digni- 
tary of the church their successor in the visitatorial office. 

This explanation may help to a clearing-up of the history 
of our own institutions. In the two main types of educa- 
tional administration which have been developed on Ameri- 
can soil, the visitors have been made identical with the 
corporation, the corporation at the same time being separated 
from the teaching body. Some of the stages in the devel- 
opment of these administrative systems will be considered 
as we proceed ; for they are vitally connected with the de- 
velopment of American educational ideals, and of American 
civilization. 

We find the title of visitor retained in connection with 
a few of our schools and colleges. The term visitation is 
rarely used among us except as applied to Providence. 
We hear occasionally of such providential visitation as an 
earthquake or a flood or an epidemic of cholera. This 
survival of the term may be a reminder of the fact that 
a righteous visitor was dreaded like the plague by the 
managers of charitable foundations who had abused their 
trust; and it might be added that an over-zealous and 
meddlesome visitation must have plagued many a right- 
eous corporation. 

The English system was not wholly satisfactory at home, 
and even if it had been unobjectionable, some adjustment 
to colonial conditions would have been found necessary. 
But various mixed and tentative forms of organization were 
adopted in different places before anything like agreement 
was reached. 

Harvard College seems to have been managed at first by 
direct action of the General Court of the colony ; then by 
the Board of Overseers ; then by its close Corporation, 
subject to a sort of visitatorial supervision by the Over- 
seers. The Corporation contained members of the teach- 

10 



146 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

ing force at first, but was gradually transformed into an 
outside body, the most of the members having then no 
pecuniary interest in the institution. The constitution of 
the Board of Overseers was the subject of much debate and 
went through various transformations, which need not con- 
cern us here. 

William and Mary College, too, had a composite organiza- 
tion, with reminders of the English type. The president 
and professors of the college were made a corporation, em- 
powered to hold and manage the property of the institution. 
But the general laws for the government of the college were 
prescribed by another body, the " Visitors and governors," 
who also appointed the members of the teaching corps. 
This board of visitors was a self-perpetuating body. 

"When the establishment of a college in Connecticut was 
under discussion, the projectors took all manner of pains to 
seek out the best available form of organization. They 
seem to have been sensible of danger to such an institution 
from both the civil and the ecclesiastical power. If we may 
trust the account of President Clap, ten ministers, who had 
been designated for the purpose by some sort of common 
consent, constituted themselves the founders by formally 
donating each a number of books for the founding of a 
college in Connecticut. The institution was set up and 
continued for many years under a preliminary act of the 
legislature ; but it attained to its full collegiate existence 
with the granting of a regular charter, in 1745. The char- 
ter conferred corporate powers on a body to be known as 
" The President and Fellows of Yale College in New Haven." 
This was a simple, close corporation, without limitation as 
to the persons who might be appointed to fill vacancies in 
its membership. The word " fellows " was used in the 
title, after the English fashion ; but it was not understood 
to mean members of the teaching force. The president and 
fellows were given absolute control over the financial and 
educational administration of the institution. 

A few sporadic examples of this simple and flexible type 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 147 

of control are found among the lower schools before the 
charter of Yale was granted ; yet Yale became so influential 
in this matter, by becoming a prolific mother of schools and 
colleges, that we shall not be far amiss if w^e call this the 
Yale type of administration. 

The other colleges that were founded in the colonial 
period for the most part followed the lead of Yale in this 
matter, with only slight variations.^ All but Brown and 
Pennsylvania had charter provisions making certain civil 
officers members ex officio of their boards of trustees. Co- 
lumbia had, in addition, certain ecclesiastical members ex 
officio. But in every such case the members ex officio were 
less than a majority of the board. Brown was the only 
one which made members of the teaching body (besides 
the president) members also of the corporation. In no case 
was there provision for visitation by any other body than 
the corporation itself.^ And in all of them, vacancies in 
trusteeships not held by the incumbents ex officio were to 
be filled by vote of the remaining trustees. 

After the middle of the eighteenth century, the example 
of the colleges plainly influenced the organization of the 
secondary schools ; and there appears a clear tendency toward 
the establishment of such schools under close corporations. 
But through the greater part of the colonial period, the close 
corporation type of organization is only one among several 
found in schools of this grade. Especially where local gov- 
ernment was in vigorous life, and where the schools were 
local institutions in that each was intended chiefly for the 
benefit of the home community, the public might be expected 
to have a considerable part in their inception and manage- 
ment, and such was actually the case. 

1 There were six of them : The College of New Jersey (Princeton), 1746 ; 
King's (Columbia), 1754; The College of Philadelphia (University of Penn- 
sylvania), 1755 ; Rhode Island College (Brown University), 1764 ; Queen's 
(Rutgers), 1766; and Dartmouth, 1769. The modern names are given in 
parentheses, and are used for convenience in the text. 

'^ The charter of King's College even provided expressly that the institu- 
tion should not be subject to visitation by any other person or persons. 



148 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

In the early days in Massachusetts, a vote of the town 
meeting appointing a schoohnaster was a common way of 
making a beginning in the setting up of a school. And the 
town seems to have proceeded in this very direct fashion in 
the transaction of school business after the beginning had 
been made. The action of Dorchester, in appointing a 
permanent board of '•' wardens or overseers," in 1645, was 
an important step. These wardens were chosen for life, 
but vacancies in their number were to be filled by vote of 
the town.^ 

The first donors to the support of a free school at Eoxbury 
appointed seven feoffees as a board of control. It was pro- 
vided that vacancies in the number of feoffees should be 
filled by appointment of the donors or their heirs. But in 
default of such appointment within one month, the remain- 
ing feoffees were empowered to elect a successor. There was 
much complaint among the townsmen in later years on 
account of the private character of tins system of control. 
Similar complaint seems to have been common enough at 
Hadley. The town had no effective check upon the manage- 
ment of its school, and attempts to bind the close-constituted 
school committee by votes in town meeting made no end of 
friction and trouble. When a free school was first set up 
in New Haven, the pastor and magistrates were charged 
with making rules and orders for its management, and 
also with determining what contribution should be made 
out of the funds of the town for its support. When the 
Hopkins fund became available, the Hopkins trustees des- 
ignated " the town court of New Haven, consisting of the 
magistrates and deputies, together with the officers of the 



1 The action of thu town is recorded in the quaint language of the time : 
" [They] sliall Continue in thei'' office and place for Ternie of thei^ lines re- 
spectiuely vnlesse by reason of any of them reniouing his habitation out of the 
Towne, or fo' any otlu" Wciglitie reason, the Inhabitants shall see cause to 
Elect and Chuse others in thei'' Roome, in wch cases and vpon the death of 
any of the same wardens, the lahabitants shall make a new Election and 
choice of others." 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 149 

church there," as their assigns for the managemeut of the 
foundation.^ 

In the New England towns it seems to have been taken 
as a matter of course that the schools should be inspected by 
the ministers. In Boston, soon after the death of Cheever, 
the town undertook to " nominate and appoint a certain 
number of Gentlemen of Liberal Education, Together with 
some of the Eev*^ Ministers of the Town, . . . to Visit y" 
School from time to time, when and as oft, as they Shall 
think fit, To Enform themselves of the Methods Used in 
Teaching of the SchoUars and to inquire of their Proficiency, 
. . . the Master being before notified of their coming , . . 
And at their said Visitation, One of the Ministers by turns 
to pray with the Schollars, and Entertain 'em with Some 
Instructions of Piety Specially Adapted to their Age and 
Education." Increase Mather was highly indignant when 
he learned that the town had ventured to associate laymen 
with the ministers in the discharge of this function. 

In some of the southern colonies, the judges of county 
courts were now and then charged with the management of 
schools. It is fair to assume that they were generally the 
best educated of civil office holders, and their professional 
training and instincts would distinguish them as safe custo- 
dians of trust funds. But whatever the reason for such 
selection may have been, we find incumbents of judicial 
offices repeatedly charged with the external management 
of schools. 

In Virginia, the happy suggestion that law and gospel 
should combine for educational purposes evidently met with 
favor. Benjamin Syms designated the justices of the peace 
of the county of Elizabeth City, together with the minister 
and church wardens of Elizabeth City parish, and their suc- 
cessors, as trustees of his endowment for a free school in the 
county named. The legislature, by an act passed in 1753, 

1 Bacon, The Hopkins Grammar Scliuol, p. 52. I believe this trust was 
made over to a private coryioration later in the seventeenth century, but have 
no definite information on this point. 



150 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

confirmed this appointment and incorporated the board of 
managers thus constituted, as " the Trustees and Governors 
of Syms' free school in the County of EHzabeth City." 
Church and court were combined again in an act of 1759, 
which incorporated the " Trustees and Governors of Eaton's 
Charity School," a board identical in its membership with 
that erected for the management of the Syms school. 

In South Carolina, the corporation erected by the acts of 
1710 and 1712 for the control of the free school at Charles- 
ton was a self-perpetuatiug body. The act of 1722 proposed, 
as was stated, to establish grammar schools in the several 
counties and precincts through the agency of county and 
precinct justices. But this combination of judicial and edu- 
cational functions was not a success : or rather, it was for 
the most part a very dismal failure. 

The corporation set up by the Maryland act of 1696, 
under which King William's School was established, was a 
self-perpetuating body. So, also, were the several county 
boards erected by the act of 1723. Whatever emphasis may 
have been laid on the idea of general public control of edu- 
cation, by the action of the legislature in this matter, was 
offset by the adoption of a plan which shut out the public 
from any direct participation in the affairs of the several 
schools. 

There seems to have been a good deal of groping about in 
the effort to find a good, working organization for the 
William Penn Charter School at Philadelphia. The charter 
of 1701 committed the management to the monthly meeting 
of the Quakers. That of 1708 entrusted it to a board of 
fifteen overseers, all of them Quakers. Finally, the charter 
of 1711 continued the board of fifteen overseers, with power 
to fill vacancies in their own number, subject only to the 
limitation that " discreet, religious persons " should be so 
chosen. 

A combination board of trustees was erected for i\\e con- 
trol of the free school established in New York in 1732. 
It was composed of the justices of the supreme court, the 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 161 

rector of Trinity Church, and certain public officials of the 
City of New York. It seems to have been a favorite idea 
in that colony that various elements and interests should be 
represented in a board of educational control. This idea is 
found yoked up with the close corporation in the early or- 
ganization of King's College. The state did not settle down 
to simpler forms of organization until the earlier tendency 
had reached a ridiculous climax in the first University act 
of 1784 

The religious activity of the second quarter of the eigh- 
teenth century had given a great impetus to the establish- 
ment of colleges in the middle and northern colonies. It 
was a time when many private academies of the log college 
type were opened. But on the whole, it was not a time 
when education flourished. The colleges were not largely 
attended. The willingness of the people to listen to moving 
pulpit orators who had not been regularly trained in the 
schools, combined with other influences to weaken the demand 
for an educated ministry. The interests of the Latin gram- 
mar schools were bound up with those of the colleges to 
which they were tributary. They suffered because the 
colleges suffered. But it was not only the little academies, 
and the change in religious conditions with which they were 
associated, that worked disadvantage to the regular colleges 
and grammar schools. There was observable a great increase 
of civic and secular spirit which had little regard for the 
strict ecclesiasticism of the established institutions. 

In Massachusetts and Connecticut, the more zealous 
orthodoxy of the time was doubtful concerning the estab- 
lished education, believing it to be tainted with heresy. In 
Virginia, Presbyterians, Baptists, and secularists alike were 
against William and Mary College and the church establish- 
ment of which it formed a part. The time was not come 
when a school system, at once civic and non-sectarian, could 
be seriously considered. So the signs all pointed to a 
splitting up of educational interests, and the setting up of 
institutions, compactly organized, each standing by itself, 



152 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

free from entangling alliance with the shifting, crumbling, 
or hopelessly unchanging institutions of church and state 
about it. The close corporation met this need, and provided 
at the same time for effective business management. We 
have seen that the later colonial colleges tended strongly 
toward this type of administration ; and it became the 
prevalent type in the rising academies. 

It appears that a new spirit was coming into American 
education, which, however gradually, was transforming old 
institutions and making new ones, and becoming really it- 
self through this process. One of the most notable of these 
institutions was the academy. The American institution 
bearing that name did not come into being, however, apart 
from all European precedent. The study of its origin will 
take us into one of the most important by-ways in the his- 
tory of English education, with which the next chapter will 
have to do. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

Cheever's Accidence was the most famous if not the only text-book 
for secondary schools publislicd in this country during the colonial period. 
Interesting notes upon it appear in Barnard's A»i. Journ. Ed., I., 
pp. 310-311 ; and XXVII., pp. 73-74. It was widely used, not only in 
colonial times, but well down into the nineteenth century. The latest edi- 
tion was issued in 1838. The Rev. Samuel Bentlev, D.D., of Salem, who 
died in 1819, said of it, "Before Mr. Ciieever's Accidence obtained, 
Mr. John Briusley's method had obtained, and this was published in 1611,^ 
three years before Cheever was born. It is in question and answer, and 
was undoubtedly known to Cheever, who has availed himself of the ex- 
pression, but has most ingeniously reduced it to the form of his Acci- 
dence, — 134 small 4to pages to 79 small 12mo, with the addition of an 
excellent Table of Irregular Verbs from the great work of the days of 
Roger Ascham." Loc. cit. 

The Accidence served as a Latin primer, and after completing it the 
pupil was put into Lilly's grammar. John Ward's edition of Lilly came 
into use shortly before the Revolution. It was publislied iu London, in 
1755, and was in three parts. The first part (71 numbered pages) was — 

1 I do not think there was any earlier edition than that of 1612. 



COLONIAL SCHOOLING 153 

A short introduction of grammar, generally to be used : Compiled and set 
forth for the bringing up of all those that intend to attain to the knowl- 
edge of the Latin tongue. 

The second part was the real Lilly, all in Latin (pp. 139). The third 
was — 

Propria quae maribus, quae genus, as in praesenti, syutaxis, qui mihi, 
construed (80 pages). 

This last-named division begins with " Dicas you may call, propria 
proper names, quae which tribuuntur are given maribus to males, mascula 
masculines ; " 

and so on to the end. 

Cato's Distichs had been a text-book from the Middle Ages down. 
Nothing is known of the author. It has been surmised that he lived under 
the Autonines. 

Fe. Zakncke, Der deutsche Cato. . . . (Leipzig, 1852, pp. 6 -f- 198), 
gives a history of mediaeval translations of this work. It was edited by 
Erasmus, with commentaries. In the library of Columbia University 
there is a copy of the sixth edition of a book edited by N. Bailey, and 
bearing this title : 

Cato's distichs de moribus. With a numerical clavis, and construing and 
parsing index. ... To whicii is added, An English translation of 
Erasmus's Commentaries on each distich. . . . London, 1771, pp. 
132. 

The following are examples of these distichs : 

"Si Deus est animus, nobis ut carmina dicunt, 
Hie tibi praecipue, sit pura mente colendus." 

"• Nil temere uxori de servis crede querent] ; 
Saepe etenim mulier, quem conjux diligit, edit." 

" Ne dubites, cum magna petas, impendere parva ; 
His etenim rebus conjugit gratia charos." 

This is paraphrased, " One good turn deserves another." 

" Uxoris linguam, si frugi est, ferre memento : 
Namque malum est nil velle pati, nee posse tacere." 

This is accompanied with the ambiguous paraphrase, " A talkative Wife, if 
honest, is to be borne with.' 

There is also in the library of Columbia University an extensive treatise 
(pp. 640) on Cato, including the commentaries of numerous authorities, 
together with the Greek metaphrase of Maximus Planudes. It was pub- 
lished at Amsterdam in 1759, and bears the title, Historia critica Cato- 
niana .... 



154 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

EuTROPius (11. 380 A.D.) was the author of a brief history of Rome, in 
ten books. It is published with an extensive proaemium by H. Droysen, 
in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, I., part 1. This text has long 
been out of use in the schools of this country ; but it has recently 
been issued by the American Book Company in an edition prepared by 
Dr. J. C. Hazzard. 

In the Library of Congress there is a copy of 

The charter, and statutes, of the College of William and Mary, in Virginia, 
in Latin and English. Williamsburg, 1736, pp. 122; 

which I have used in preparing the present chapter. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 

Plato taught his disciples in the grove of Academus, and 
his school was called in consequence The Academy, But 
how did the name come to be applied to humble institu- 
tions for secondary education on this Western Continent ? 
The history of the word is of interest chiefly because of the 
light which it may throw on the history of the institution. 
The commonly received account is that offered some years 
ago by Dr. Henry Barnard ; and, though open to criticism at 
several points, it may well serve as our point of departure 
in this inquiry : 

"The earliest English or American use of academy, as 
applied to an institution of instruction for youth, we find 
in Milton's letter to Samuel Hartlib, in 1643, where the 
Academy, by which he designated his institute for a com- 
plete and generous culture, covers the whole field of the 
grammar school, the college within the university, and the 
university. The Non-conformists applied the term to their 
boarding; schools, which in grade of instruction, resemble 
nearly the English Public School, or the endowed grammar 
school. In this sense Defoe uses the term in his Essay upon 
Projects first published in 1699,^ and at the same time em- 
ploys it, in the general English usage, to designate an asso- 
ciation of philologists to improve and perfect the English 
tongue like the French academy. In the essay cited, Defoe 
gives the plan of an Academy for Music, with hints for 
cheap Sunday concerts ; an Academy for Military Science 

^ The copy of the Essay upon projects, in the Boston Public Library, is 
dated 1697. 



156 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

and Practice ; and an Academy for Women — the earliest 
project of a school of this grade for women in England or 
America by near a century. From Defoe we can easily 
trace the earliest use of the term in this country to Frank- 
lin, who acknowledges, in his autobiography, his indebted- 
ness to Defoe's Essay wpon Projects as having influenced 
some of the principal events of his life, and designates his 
plan for public education of youth in Pennsylvania, a "pro- 
ject of an academy. After Franklin's pamphlet, which had 
a very wide circulation, and which will be found bound up 
with other pamphlets of the Revolutionary period in most of 
the old libraries of the country, the term, and the institution 
itself became quite common. In many states before 1800 
Academies were established with Boards of Trustees, and 
certain corporate powers after the plan of Franklin, and not 
a few of them bore his name." ^ 

The use of the word academy, to designate some sort of 
school was not uncommon among the great humanists of the 
Continent. And Milton's letter to Samuel Hartlib may 
, fairly be called the last of a long and notable line of essays 
on education called out by the renaissance. Among its pre- 
decessors are to be mentioned the treatises of Jj^neas Sylvius, 
Guarino, Erasmus, Vives, and Ascham.^ 

But Milton was mere than a man of the renaissance. To 
say nothing of his puritanism, he was a true contemporary 
of Bacon and Descartes ; of Comenius, too, though he dis- 
misses the Janua with a shrug ; of Pascal and Locke and 
Newton. Standing midway between Erasmus and Rousseau, 
he belongs to both the renaissance and the return to nature. 
In two luminous sentences he places the two schools, of 
thought side by side, and allies himself with both. " Seeing 
every nation affords not experience and tradition enough for 
all kinds of learning, therefore we are chiefly taught the 
languages of those people who have at any time been most 

1 Am. Joarn. Ed., XXX., p. 760. 

2 Four of the earlier essays of this class are reproduced, in English transla- 
tion, in Woodward's Vittorino da Feltre, 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 157 

industrious after wisdom." It would be difficult to find a 
better putting of the classical spirit in education, as it is at 
its best. " Because our understanding cannot in this body 
found itself but on sensible things, nor arrive so clearly to 
the knowledge of God and things invisible, as by orderly 
conning over the visible and inferior creature, the same 
method is necessarily to be followed in all discreet teaching." 
That is the spirit of our natural science, as seen from afar 
by one who knew how to be both a Puritan and a poet in 
the seventeenth century. And his way of bringing the two 
views together, in some stereoscopic unity, appears from the 
added clause, " that language is but the instrument convey- 
ing to us things useful to be known." Such hospitality 
toward many kinds of knowledge has more than once been 
found in the masters who know indeed ; but those who have 
shown it seem to belong of right to our modern world. 

There is that in the brief Tractate on Education which 
stirs one like the sounding of a trumpet. It is the free 
setting forth of an education " for all the offices, both private 
and public, of peace and war," by one who has known " many 
studious and contemplative years, altogether spent in the 
search of religious and civil knowledge." It has been 
slighted as being unpractical, but its excellence is seen in 
this, that it does not accommodate itself to any petty con- 
ception of what is practical or practicable. 

It is a scheme for the education of " our noble and our gentle 
youth" between the ages of twelve and twenty-one. The 
schooling of this period is to be the concern of a single 
institution, an " academy," which shall be both school and 
university. This academy does not offer instruction in the 
most elementary arts'; nor does it provide for the profes- 
sional training of future practitioners in law or medicine ; but 
it carries to completion " those general studies which take 
up all our time from Lilly to commencing, as they term it, 
master of art." 

Such general studies, in Milton's thought, shape them- 
selves into a wonderful curriculum. First comes the Latin 



158 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

grammar; then as soon as the pupil can read a little in 
Latin, he will study some classical work on education,^ 
which can hardly be anything else than the first two or 
three books of Quintilian. Some beginning is now made in 
arithmetic and geometry ; and the time between supper and 
going to bed is taken with easy studies in religion and the 
Scripture history. The next Latin authors to be read are 
such as treat of agriculture — Cato, Varro, and Columella. 
These are to be followed by some modern work on "the use 
of the globes," that is, astronomy and geography ; or " any 
compendious method of natural philosophy." At the same 
time, Greek is begun with the study of the grammar, which 
the pupil will easily master. Then Greek writers on " his- 
torical physiology," Aristotle and Theophrastus, are to be 
read, along with Vitruvius, Seneca's natural questions, Mela, 
Celsus, Pliny, or Solinus. Studies in mathematics are to be 
carried forward into trigonometry, with practical application 
to fortification, architecture, engineering, or navigation. 
Natural philosophy will be continued in the study of " the 
history of meteors, minerals, plants, and living creatures, as 
far as anatomy." Then follows, in natural sequence, an in- 
troduction to the study of medicine. 

In all of these studies of nature and of the occupations 
which deal with the physical world, the experience of prac- 
titioners in the several fields is to be utilized, so that the 
pupils may get "a real tincture of natural knowledge." 
Then the poets who deal with nature, both Latin and Greek, 
will be found ac;reeable reading. 

By this time the pupils will have attained to sufficient 
maturity of judgment to profit by the reading of the Graek 
and Latin moralists. The mention of these leads to a word 
on the deep question of the relation of morals to religion. 
This was touched on early in the essay, where, the end of 
learning having been set forth as the regaining of a knowl- 

1 This attempt to make the learner conscious, from an early period, of the 
processes of his own education, finds a parallel in the practice of Chinese 
schools. 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 159 

edge of God, it was added that such knowledge should lead 
men to love Him and be like Him, " as we may the nearest 
by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united 
to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up the highest perfec- 
tion." So pagan virtue and Christian faith were brought 
together. Now the working out of this union in practice 
is proposed; for the heathen moralists, studied during the 
day, "are still to be reduced in their nightward studies 
wherewith they close the day's work, under the determinate 
sentence of David or Solomon, or the evangelists and apostolic 
Scriptures." 

After ethics, economics ; and, Italian having been " easily 
learned, at any odd hour," the boys may now read, under 
caution, in choice comedies, Greek, Latin, or Italian, and 
tragedies that deal with household matters. Then politics, 
with law and legal justice, Hebrew, Gr?cian, Eoman, and 
Saxon ; the common law and statutes. The evening studies 
are to be supplemented with theology and church history 
on Sundays. Hebrew will have been mastered before this, 
" whereto it would be no impossibility to add the Chaldee 
and the Syrian dialect." The great masterpieces of Greek 
and Eoman literature are to be read, histories, epics, trage- 
dies, orations. And along with them, " those organic arts," 
logic, rhetoric, and poetics. 

Milton protests against requiring small boys to compose 
in Latin, out of the extreme poverty of youthful wits ; but 
after the mind has been enriched and the judgment 
strengthened by this long course of reading and study, he 
would have the composition of various forms of discourse 
appear as one of the most advanced exercises of the school. 
English as well as Latin composition is evidently intended. 

Much stress is laid upon physical exercise, and particularly 
such as would form good soldiers. A wholesome diet, too, 
is urgently recommended. Music is to recreate and compose 
the spirit in the time of rest from exercise, and also to assist 
nature in the process of digestion after meat. In the spring, 
time the young men are not to study overmuch, but rather 



160 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

to ride out over the land, looking upon the riches of nature, 
and observing the strategic, industrial, and commercial 
advantages of different sections ; or to gain some knowledge 
of seamanship. Such means would give exercise to a variety 
of gifts, " and if there were any secret excellence among 
them would fetch it out." After the course in the academy 
is completed, the young men may travel abroad, but foreign 
travel at an earlier period is not recommended. 

Such is the high and magnificent scheme of education 
which Milton proposes. He insists that it is possible, and 
at the same time admits " that this is not a bow for every 
man to shoot in, that counts himself a teacher; but will 
require sinews almost equal to those which Homer gave 
Ulysses." 

Milton himself taught for a time, and in his school made 
use of a formidable list of Latin and Greek authors in the 
domain of natural science, and works relating to those 
occupations which depend upon a knowledge of nature. 
Dr. Johnson, who had also been a schoolmaster, treated 
Milton's service as a teacher rather contemptuously ; and 
pronounced with patronizing finality against magnifying 
the study of natural science in the schools. But Johnson 
lived a century later than Milton, and was doubtless in- 
veighing against a tendency of his own time, which, rein- 
forced by French influence, was already going further than 
anything with which the seventeenth century had been 
familiar. Johnson set the knowledge of moral philosophy 
over against the sciences of external nature, to the disad- 
vantage of the latter.^ Milton, however, seems to have had 
in mind the study of nature as a propsedeutic to the study of 
conduct and religion, as well as a preparation for efficiency 
and usefulness in the varied activities of life. 

It may readily be supposed that the schools set up by 
dissenting clergymen, under the most unfavorable circum- 
stances, were little like the academy proposed by Milton. 
Yet we may see now and then iu the history of those 

1 Lives of the English Puds: Millun. 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 161 

schools some line which recalls the grand scheme of the 
Tractate. There is reason to believe that the poet's ideal 
academy is related to those very humble and proscribed 
academies, however much the family likeness may have 
been obscured in the realization. It is not improbable, too, 
that Milton's use of the word academy may have been 
partly responsible for the general employment of the term 
by English dissenters to designate the schools which they 
erected. 

The history of these schools goes back to the Protectorate. 
Oliver Cromwell undertook the establishment of a college or 
university, to be supported by the sequestrated funds of the 
episcopal see of Durham. Eichard Frankland was called to 
preside over this institution. Like so many other brave 
beginnings made by the Protector, this was brought speedily 
to an end by the Kestoration. Frankland then retired to a 
small estate which he possessed at the village of Ptathmill, 
near Giggleswick, and there, in 1665, opened a private school, 
which may be regarded as the first of the academies of the 
dissenters. 

Under the Act of Uniformity, as renewed in 1662, nearly 
two thousand English clergymen were driven from their 
parishes as nonconformists. This was not far from one-fifth 
of the whole number of rectors and vicars in the English 
Church.^ These dispossessed clergymen had, many of them, 
been educated at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 
Being deprived of their livings, it is not strange that a 
goodly number turned to teaching as a means of gaining a 
livelihood. 

But other considerations influenced them to the same end. 
Nonconformists were excluded from the English public 
schools and universities. In the midst of educational ad- 
vantages among the best in the world, the dissenting bodies 
were threatened with the very danger that beset the colonists 
in far-off New England, the danger that learning would 
be buried in the graves of their forefathers. Their minis- 

1 See Green, History of tlie English people, bk. VIII., cli. 1. 
11 



162 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

ters of succeeding generations would not be men bred at 
universities ; and their young men destined for other pro- 
fessions would have no fair preparation for competing with 
practitioners who were communicants of the established 
church. A high sense of duty to their fellow-sectarians, 
then, moved these ministers to offer the best substitute they 
could provide for the instruction of the higher schools. 

The Act of Uniformity, and the Five Mile Act which 
followed, put all possible hindrance in the way of their 
undertaking. Any schoolmaster who should venture to give 
instruction before he should have received a license from the 
ecclesiastical authorities, was threatened with imprison- 
ment ; and that license might be obtained only after the 
most solemn and explicit declaration of conformity to the 
English Church. These stringent provisions were only par- 
tially relaxed by the Toleration Act of 1689, and it was an 
uncertain, half -outlawed existence which was led by the 
schools of the ejected ministers. Yet these private and 
obscure academies multiplied, and the work which they 
accomplished was undoubtedly a public service of no small 
importance. 

In spite of obstacles such as these, Frankland continued 
his career as tutor for the term of thirty-three years. It is 
said that three hundred students came under his instruction. 
John Bowes, afterwards Lord Cliancellor of Ireland, and 
Nicholas Sanderson, the blind mathematician, who was 
made professor at Cambridge, were among the number. 
The successor of Frankland, the Eev. Timothy Jollie, had 
also been a student in the academy. He is spoken of in 
terms of praise for his eloquence and the attractiveness of 
his personal character, but some little apology is offered for 
his lack of extensive learning. 

We have information respecting upwards of thirty other 
institutions of this class that were opened before the Ameri- 
can Eevolution. They are associated with the names of 
eminent men, some of them the very saints of English non- 
conformity, and others among the foremost churchmen of 
the time. 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 163 

There was an academy kept by John Woodhouse at 
Sheriffhales, in Shropshire. Mr. Woodhouse must have 
been one of those men of the seventeenth century who were 
possessed of a mighty love for knowledge of many kinds, 
and who loved also to impart to others what they had them- 
selves acquired. "We are told that he lectured at Sheriff- 
hales on logic, anatomy, mathematics, natural philosophy, 
ethics, and rhetoric, besides directing the studies of his 
students in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and in English com- 
position. He marked out theological reading for those who 
were destined for the ministry, and read once a week an 
appropriate lecture to those preparing for the practice of law. 
In addition, " all the classes were exercised at times in land 
surveying, dialling, making almanacks, and dissecting ani- 
mals." 1 Eobert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and Henry St. 
John, Viscount Bolingbroke, were among his students. 

One of the best known of the earlier academies was that 
of the Rev. Charles Morton, at Newington Green. Mr. 
Morton was an accomplished gentleman, " as far from pride 
as ignorance," according to one who knew him well. He 
drew up for his students a compendium of logic, a system 
of politics, and rules for the guidance of candidates for the 
ministry. He " Read all his Lectures, gave all his Systems, 
whether of Phylosophy or Divinity, in English ; had all his 
Declaimings, and Disertations in the English Tongue." It 
is Daniel Defoe who gives this account. His schooling 
was got in Mr. Morton's academy, and when he speaks in 
adverse criticism of such institutions, he excepts the school 
of his former master. " Tho' the Scholars from that Place 
were not Distitute in the Languages," he continues, " yet it 
is observ'd of them, they were by this made Masters of the 
English Tongue and more of them excelled in that Par- 
ticular, than of any School at that Time." ^ 

Another famous pupil of Mr. Morton's was Samuel 
Wesley, the father of John and Charles. Samuel Wesley, 

1 Quarterly Journal of Ed., I., p. 51. 
* Present state of parties, p. 319. 



164 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

after leaving the academy, became a clergyman of the 
Church of England, and in the year 1704 he entered upon a 
bitter warfare against the educational system of the dis- 
senters. His three pamphlets upon this subject called out 
two in reply by Samuel Palmer. The controversy brought 
both the excellences and the defects of the then existing 
academies out into the full light of day. 

There is a little more that should be told of Mr. Morton. 
He was greatly harassed in his educational activity by pro- 
ceedings against him in the ecclesiastical courts. One 
favorite method of attack by those who conducted such pro- 
ceedings was to accuse the defendant of having violated the 
oath that he had taken at the university, on the occasion 
of the conferring of his academic degree. There were others 
who shared this difficulty with Mr. Morton ; and to settle 
the case of conscience which was involved, he drew up a 
careful dissertation upon the obligation of such oaths. Since 
the times, back in the middle ages, when the two universi- 
ties had been troubled with the secession of students, some 
to Northampton, some to Stamford, candidates for degrees 
had been required to swear most solemnly that they would 
not read lectures as in a university at any other place in 
England than at Oxford or Cambridge. The form of oath 
differed a little in the two institutions, and the meaning was 
certainly open to dispute. Mr. Morton maintained the 
thesis that the oath debarred no one from lecturing upon 
subjects taught in the university, but only from engaging in 
the exercises connected with the granting of degrees. By 
this argument he helped himself and his brethren over a 
troublesome point. 

But he finally grew tired of incessant bickering and litiga- 
tion, and in 1685 emigrated to Massachusetts. In New Eng- 
land he was held in high esteem. He was chosen to an 
important pastorate and is said to have been made vice-presi- 
dent of Harvard College.^ He died in this country in 1697. 

1 I am not sure of the correctness of this statement, which commonly 
appears in the accounts of Mr. Morton's career. 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 165 

There was another academy at Newington, under the 
direction of Theophilus G-ale. This gentleman had a great 
reputation for scholarship, based on a book, The court of the 
Gentiles, of which he was the author. His successor in the 
academy was Thomas Kowe, who had the proud distinction 
of having Isaac Watts among his students. This fact is 
worthy of more than passing notice ; for there is perhaps no 
one name more truly representative of the eighteenth-cen- 
tury academies than is the name of Dr. Watts. This gentle 
hymn-writer was never an academy instructor, though he 
served for four years as a private tutor. But his introduc- 
tion to astronomy was widely used in the academies of both 
England and America, his text-book in logic was given 
an important place even in the English universities, and his 
little work on The improvement of the mind was a favorite 
academy text for two or three generations. 

Watts entered Mr. Eowe's academy in 1690, at sixteen, 
years of age, and remained there for four years. He was 
already proficient in Latin, which he had begun to study at 
the age of four. In the academy he was known as a 
student of unusual character and attainments. His tutor 
seems to have been well worthy of the charge of so promis- 
ing a youth ; and the pupil honored his master in after 
years with a poem " To the much honored Mr. Thomas 
Eowe, the director of my youthful studies." It was the 
master's freedom from the trammels of tradition which the 
poet remembered with especial gratitude — not exactly what 
one would expect from Isaac Watts, nor think of in connec- 
tion with a nonconformist school. Yet, in a mild way, this 
was highly characteristic of both. What with his broad 
sympathy and liberal tastes. Watts was charged in Ids life- 
time with Arminianism and with the still more deadly heresy 
of Arianism. But whatever doubts may have been felt as to 
his orthodoxy, he was dearly loved by all manner of people, 
Anglicans, Calvinistic dissenters, and heretics as well.^ So 

1 Dr. Johnson held him up for imitation, "all but his non-conformity." 
"Few books," said the Doctor, "have been [jerused by me with greater 



166 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

he spread a genial and wholesome influence, which did not 
end with his life nor with the century to which he belonged. 

His literary taste was refined and he was famed for his 
wit. He was not of the highest order of intellect, and in his 
philosophical writing he leaned on other men — on Locke 
and Le Clerc and Sir Isaac Newton. Yet it was no small 
service to make available for use in the schools those con- 
ceptions which were giving new direction to the intellectual 
life of England. And it was through books like those of 
Watts and schools like the academies, that the higher 
thought of the time filtered down into the middle classes 
of society, which were slowly coming into prominence in 
the life of the English nation. 

Aside from theological doctrine, the real intellectual 
stimulus of the eighteenth-century academies seems to 
have come largely from John Locke and Sir Isaac Newton ; 
and while the thought of these master minds oftenest 
reached the schools through the writings of Watts and other 
popularizers, there are other instances in which we find the 
original masterpieces freely studied in the academies. The 
deeply religious character of both Locke and Newton, and 
the fact that, though churchmen, they were both earnest 
advocates of a large toleration, commended them to the men 
concerned with the building up of academies ; and the wide 
intellectual hospitality which they themselves displayed and 
their success in enlarging the range of human thought and 
knowledge, appealed to academy men on the side of their 
intellectual tastes. So the influence of these two friends 
is found back of the academy movement in successive 
stages of its progress. 

In view of this fact, it might be expected that Locke's 
work on education would have become the pedagogical hand- 
book of academy masters. The book was indeed widely 
read, and it seems to have had some influence on pedagogic 

pleasure than his Improvement of the mind." He gives AVatts the credit of 
having "taught the Dissenters to court attention by the graces of language." 
Lives of the poets : Watts. 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 167 

usage. But it was not an age in which educational theory- 
passed readily over into educational practice. The acade- 
mies had grooves of their own. Their tradition of teaching 
was not ready to yield to newly promulgated principles of 
teaching.^ 

Eeturning to Mr. Rowe's academy, we may note that 
among the schoolmates of Isaac Watts were John Hughes, 
the poet and dramatist, and Josiah Hort, afterwards Arch- 
bishop of Tuam. It was said, moreover, of Mr. Rowe that 
"to his exertions as a tutor, the dissenters are indebted 
for a race of divines, who filled their churches with great 
reputation," ^ 

There was another academy, at Gloucester, kept by the 
Rev. Samuel Jones, which calls for special mention ; for it 
was here that two who in after years attained great eminence 
in the Church of England, were fellow students and close 
friends. One of these was Joseph Butler, who became 
Bishop of Durham, and wrote the famous Analogy ; the 
other was Thomas Seeker, who, as Archbishop of Canterbury, 
was one of the chief contributors to the controversy respect- 
ing the establishment of a colonial episcopate. 

Samuel Jones was probably born in America, for his 
father was pastor of a congregation in Pennsylvania. He 
was educated in Holland, at the university of Leyden, and 
must have opened his academy at Gloucester soon after 
leaving the university. The institution was so successful 
that it was soon moved to larger quarters, in Tewkesbury. 
Isaac Watts was in some way concerned with procuring 
young Seeker's admission to this academy ; and Seeker 

1 " Who that reads at all has not read Milton's 'Tractate on Education ;' 
and also Locke's : and who having read them, does not speak of them in terms 
of the highest commendation ? Yet, how little has either the one or the 
other contributed to improve the national system of education ! " Boucher, 
Discourse on American education (1773). This, to be sure, is the testimony of 
a colonial churchman, and does not relate directly to the dissenters' academies 
of the mother country. See also the interesting notes on Locke's iuiluence in 
QlTiNCY, Life of Josiah Quincy, pp. 19-20. 

^ Wilson, Dissenting churches, IIL, p. 171. 



168 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

wrote Watts a letter, iu 1711, which gives us some insight 
into the management of the institution.^ Mr. Jones is 
described in this letter as a very courteous gentleman, " of 
real piety, great learning, and an agreeable temper." He was 
found always ready to enter into conversation upon any 
useful topic. He encouraged the students to offer objections 
to his opinions, even during the progress of the regular 
lectures. 

The course of study was about four years in "length. 
There were sixteen students at the time referred to, some 
of them mature men, or such as had already studied at 
other academies. They were obliged to rise at five o'clock 
every morning, and to speak only in Latin, " except when 
below stairs amongst the family." The morning session was 
two hours in length, and that of the afternoon a little 
longer. The morning was devoted to logic and Hebrew ; 
the afternoon began with a critical lecture upon the history 
and language of the Scriptures, which had been undertaken 
at Mr. Watts's suggestion. This was followed by the reading 
of a chapter in the Greek Testament ; and after that, mathe- 
matics. This programme was varied on Wednesdays, when 
Dionysius' Periegesis was read in the morning, with notes, 
chiefly geographical, and no lecture was given in the after- 
noon. Saturday afternoon, too, there was a change, those 
who had finished logic having a thesis, and the others being 
free. At some time not specified, Isocrates and Terence 
were read, each twice a week, and a class was to be formed 
for the study of Jewish antiquities. 

Heereboort's logic was studied ; but it was supplemented 
with explanations and corrections by the tutor, and the 
reading of " far the greater part of Mr. Locke's Essay, and 
the Art of Thinking." Short dictations were given, and at 
the beginning of each lecture hour the class recited on 
both the previous lecture and the reading. It was Mr. 
Jones's custom to refer his students to the chief authorities 

1 This letter is reproduced in Isaac Watts ; his life and writings, his hornes 
and friends. 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 169 

upon the various subjects studied, and they seem to have 
read somewliat widely in preparation for their recitations. 

In Hebrew about twenty verses were assigned daily from 
some of the easier parts of the Bible, and each member of 
the class was required to read two of these verses and turn 
them into Greek, without knowing in advance which verses 
would fall to his lot. In mathematics the class had gone 
through such portions of algebra and proportion as were 
commonly taught, together with the first six books of Euclid. 
The next class was expected to do more than this.^ 

We look in vain for some sign of out-door exercise in this 
programme. There was free time, it would seem, and sports 
may have been indulged in. But if so, they were beneath 
the notice of this eighteen-year-old divinity student. It is 
much more likely that it would have been thought unbe- 
coming in prospective ministers to take any sort of exercise 
at all, beyond a formal walk of short duration. 

Other famous academy instructors of the earlier days were 
Mr. Doolittle, an Oxford graduate, who taught in Isling- 
ton, and had Matthew Henry among his pupils ; Joshua 
Oldfield, who had studied at Cambridge and won approval 
from Sir Isaac Newton, and who taught at Coventry, at 
Southwark in London, and at Hoxton : many of his pupils 
became men of mark ; Samuel Cradock, another Oxford 
man, who taught at Wickhambrook, in Suffolk ; and Mat- 
thew Warren, who had an academy at Taunton. 

But perhaps the most famous of the eighteenth-century 
academies was that opened at Northampton, in 1729, by 
Philip Doddridge, and presided over by him for twenty-two 
years. Dr. Doddridge was one of the most notable dissent- 
ing ministers of the time and his academy naturally exer- 
cised a very wide influence. Before entering upon the 

^ According to his biographer, Bishop Porteus, Seeker at nineteen had 
made considerable progress in Greek, Latin, French, Hebrew, Chaldee, and 
Syriac ; in geography, logic, algebra, geometry, and conic sections ; and had 
taken a course of lectures on Jewish antiquities. The loorks of Thomas 
Seeker, I. 



170 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

undertaking, he had prepared himself for it with the utmost 
care, reading everything he could find upon the subject of 
education, and availing himself especially of such assistance 
as could be got from the writings of Isaac Watts, and from 
notes on the lectures of Samuel Jones, loaned to him in 
manuscript by former students of that great teacher. 

His school had on an average about thirty-four students, 
the most of whom lived under one roof, with their tutor. 
It soon became necessary to employ a regular assistant, who 
had charge of the younger boys, or in the Doctor's absence 
managed the whole institution. The Northampton students 
did not begin the day so early as those at Tewkesbury. Six 
o'clock was their rising hour in summer and seven in win- 
ter. Those who were not on time must pay a fine in 
money, as also any who were away from home after ten at 
night. At morning worship, some of the students read a 
chapter of the Old Testament from Hebrew into English ; 
at evening worship a chapter of the New Testament was 
read from Greek into English. The Doctor commented 
on these passages. It is hinted that at the morning exer- 
cise the young men sometimes slipped in an English Bible 
along with the Hebrew text, and thereby greatly facilitated 
their translations. 

Students were expected to learn Kich's shorthand, and 
use it in takincr notes on lectures and making extracts 
from the books which they consulted. In the first two 
years of the course, much attention was paid to the reading 
of classics in Latin and Greek, on which the students were 
supposed to have made a good beginning before entering 
the academy. Doddridge insisted more strongly, as time 
went on, upon the importance of classical training for future 
ministers. In the earlier years, he had sometimes admitted 
to his school young men of twenty-three or even older, who 
had made but little preparation in the Latin and Greek, but 
gave decided promise of usefulness. Later, however, he was 
less inclined to such leniency, and he began before his 
death to make arrangements for the preliminary training of 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 171 

promising youth who had not had good opportunities for 
classical study. Not infrequently, too, he set some of his 
more advanced students at work helping such of the begin- 
ners as were backward, especially in their Greek. Students 
were given an opportunity of studying French. The in- 
fluence of the school was favorable to a wide literary cul- 
ture. A library of several thousand volumes was provided, 
and students were given advice and encouragement in the 
use of books, including the masterpieces of general English 
literature. 

Other subjects studied during the first year of the course 
were logic, rhetoric, geography, and metaphysics. Dr. Watts's 
text-book in logic was used. The instruction in rhetoric is 
said to have been slight ; that in geography better ; that in 
metaphysics only an outline, preparatory to later studies. 
Geometry and algebra were also presented, in lectures, fol- 
lowed by trigonometry, conic sections, and celestial mechan- 
ics. The last-named study dealt chiefly with propositions 
from the works of Sir Isaac Newton. There were studies 
also in " natural philosophy . . . illustrated by a neat and 
pretty large apparatus." Natural and civil history were 
barely touched by the way. High praise is given to the 
instruction offered in anatomy. Jewish antiquities and eccle- 
siastical history were also studied. One day every week 
was set apart for public exercises, orations, homilies, and 
the like, and great attention was paid to these performances. 
But the head and front of the whole system of instruction 
was Dr. Doddridge's System of Divinity. The account 
which is given of the pains bestowed on the perfecting of 
this system, and of the free discussion of disputed points 
which was encouraged in the course of the Doctor's instruc- 
tion, makes a very happy impression. 

It would appear from what has been said that this was 
simply a school for the training of ministers. Such, how- 
ever, was not the case. Ministerial training was undoubt- 
edly the uppermost thought in the conduct of the academy, 
but students intended for other vocations were also in 



172 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

attendance here, as at other academies. Dr. Doddridge 
expressed the belief that lay and ministerial students might 
better receive instruction in separate schools, but he never 
acted upon his own suggestion.^ 

Dr. Ashworth was the successor of Dr. Doddridge in the 
management of this academy, and under him it was moved to 
Daventry. Here one of the most distinguished pupils was 
Joseph Priestley, who became famous in after years both as 
a physicist and as a Unitarian theologian. Priestley was 
himself for some years instructor in an academy at War- 
rington. He made the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin, 
and the last ten years of his life were passed in Pennsyl- 
vania, where he died in 1804. He was at one time called to 
a professorship in the University of Pennsylvania, which, 
however, he declined. 

A school of somewhat different sort should be mentioned 
here — that at Kingswood, the head of a long line of Meth- 
odist educational institutions. It was at Kingswood that 
George Whitefield began his career of out-door preaching, 
early in the year 1739 ; and a few weeks after this begin- 
ning, he secured the first contributions for the establish- 
ment of a school for the Kingswood colliers. The move- 
ment, however, soon passed out of Whitefield's hands, and 
was taken up by John Wesley. The school was opened in 
1740. At the first it was of a very elementary character; 
but in 1748 it was enlarged and raised to a higher rank, 
though an elementary school, too, was still carried on for 
many years. The remodelled institution was a boarding 
school, and was " for above half a century Methodism's only 
college." 2 

There is much that is interesting in the story of the 
changes which came over these institutions in the latter 
half of the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century, 
too, with its long record of relaxation of ecclesiastical limi- 

1 KiPPis, Life of Doddridge, pnssini. 

'^ The story of this school may be found in Tyerman, Life of John 
Wesley, I., pp. 269-270 ; II. and III. passim. 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 173 

tations, has made great transformations, and the time has 
even come when at Oxford, nonconformity has its represen- 
tative college. But it is no part of our present purpose to 
follow the course of this history heyond our colonial period. 
It may not be amiss to express the hope that our English 
brethren, who have done much excellent work of late in the 
history of education, will give us a full account of an in- 
stitution which stands in such close relations with our own 
educational development as does the old academy. 

In general, it may be said of these academies, that while 
endeavoring to keep alive the tradition of scholarship among 
the dissenting bodies, they represented, in more ways than 
one, a revolt against tradition. They not only undertook to 
give instruction in the studies commonly pursued in the 
English universities, but they reached out after new learn- 
ing in the many forms in which it was then opening up, 
whether in or out of the universities. This characteristic is 
set forth by Isaac Watts, in the verses addressed to Mr. 
Eowe, which have already been mentioned. 

The poem is entitled Free Philosophy. 

" Custom, that tvrauness of fools, 
That leads the learned round the schools 
In magick chains of forms and rules ! 
My Genius storms her throne ; 
No more, ye slaves, with awe profound 
Beat the dull track nor dance the round ; 
Loose hands, and quit the enchanted ground : 
Knowledge invites us each alone." 

No doubt Watts wrote a good deal of verse that was very 
much better than this, but as the expression of a new spirit 
in education it is a noteworthy production. He continues : 

"I hate these shackles of the mind 
Forg'd by the haughty wise ; 
Souls were not born to be confiu'd, 
And led Hke Samson blind and bound, 
But when his native strength he found 
He well aveng'd his eyes.'' 



174 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

" I love thy gentle influence, Rowe ; 
Thy gentle influence, like the sun, 
Only dissolves the frozen snow, 
Then bids our thoughts like rivers flow, 
And chuse the channels where they ruu." 

Then follows a burst of exultation, the free expression of 
a spirit that 

" Will thro' all Nature fly ; 

Swift I survey the globe around. 

Dive to the centre thro' the solid ground, 

Or travel o'er the sky." 

It was impossible that such feeble institutions as the 
academies should head a revolt like this without laying 
themselves open to all manner of criticism. Much of their 
instruction was superficial, as a matter of course. Their 
tutors were bitten with the zeal for many knowledges, when 
their facilities for carrying on any line of instruction were 
wofully cramped and mean. The schools were generally 
lacking in libraries and other appliances. They lacked the 
scholastic atmosphere of the older seats of learning. Their 
greatest imperfection, according to Defoe, was " want of con- 
versation ; " which might have guarded their students against 
the danger of pedantry. 

The more favored institutions among them had an offset 
for these deficiencies in the personal excellence of their 
instructors, some of whom must have been rare teachers, 
learned, catholic in their tastes, and inspiring in their inter- 
course with young men. There is something that wins re- 
spect and interest in the whole-hearted way that men like 
Woodhouse and Morton and Doddridge gave themselves 
free range over the fields of knowledge, regardless of scho- 
lastic traditions ; and led their students to an acquaintance- 
ship, not only with things human and divine, but with 
things of the natural world as well. Perhaps it would not 
be too much to say that there was something of the spirit 
of John Milton in all of this activity. 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 175 

But the students too often came to the academies without 
sufficient preparation, from homes in which there were no 
traditions of culture ; and too often they found there only 
the narrowest sort of instruction in the classics, and in the 
theology and ecclesiastical polity of the dissenters. The 
ordinary course of instruction is said to have been five years 
in length, or in more fortunate cases and especially at 
a later period, six years. Defoe entered Mr. Morton's 
academy at fourteen, and is believed to have continued 
there for five years. But the poverty of many students led 
to their being hurried through in only three years. Many 
young men, " fund-bred," as Defoe called them, were sup- 
ported through their academy course by small scholarships 
which benevolent persons had provided. Then they rushed 
off, at the earliest possible moment, to accept a call, unwisely 
extended, to the pastorate of some feeble congregation, or to 
make way for a successor in their scholarship. 

It may very well be that Benjamin Franklin had been 
interested in the idea of an academy as suggested by Defoe, 
in the Essay upon Projects and others of his writings. Defoe 
touched the public life of England at many points, and 
the practical sense and far reach of many of his observa- 
tions would appeal strongly to such a man as Franklin. 
The varied suggestiveness of the Essay upon Projects in par- 
ticular is such as might well make it the seed-corn of prac- 
tical undertakings.^ 

But we are not limited to the supposition that Defoe 
was the only channel through which a knowledge of the 
English academies reached America. The men who were 
concerned in the conduct of those institutions were often 
such as were in touch with certain aspects of colonial life. 
Charles Morton, as we have seen, spent his later years in 
New England. The word academy in its English sense must 

1 It should be said that the academies of whicli the Essay speaks are all of 
them special institutions. No suggestion is offered respecting the ordinary 
schooling of young men. Defoe's account of Mr. Morton's academy appears 
iu The ^present state of parties. 



176 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

have been familiar in that region by the beginning of the 
eighteenth century. Both of the Mathers used the word, 
applying it to the New England colleges. Judge Sewall and 
Secretary Addington applied it to the proposed college at 
New Haven. The connection was particularly close between 
the men of the eighteenth-century academies in England and 
the men of the Great Awakening in America. Jonathan Ed- 
wards wrote his Faithful Narrative at the request of Isaac 
Watts and Dr. Guyse of London, who added to it a preface 
of their own. In his Thoughts on the Revival, a little later, 
Edwards called attention to Dr. Doddridge's account of the 
religious influences at work in his academy at the English 
Northampton, and recommended that people of means in this 
country should proceed to establish schools. Whitefield, too, 
as he went up and down the country, carried with him a 
knowledge of and interest in the academies of both England 
and America. He spoke with evident pride of the fact that 
Franklin's academy was housed in the building originally 
erected to accommodate the congregations which flocked to 
hear his own preaching. 

The earlier academy movement in this country, prior to 
the Eevolution, belongs to the middle colonies. This was 
a time of experiment, in which the real character of the 
American institution was as yet undetermined. It was not 
until the colonies had set up for themselves that this type 
became clearly marked. The movement from that time on 
centred in New England, the leaders and models being the 
two Phillips academies, at Andover and Exeter. No clear 
evidence has been brought forth which would settle for us 
the question whence these two institutions got their name 
or their inspiration.^ In the absence of such evidence, it 
seems as likely that the Phillips family were influenced by 

1 The designation of the Andover institution was evidently the subject of 
considerable discussion before it was finally decided to call it an academi/. 
Judge Pliillips refers vaguely, in one of the papers that he left, to "the method 
of the ancients." (Cf. Park, Earlier annals, pp. 12-14.) He may have had 
some thought of the original Academy of Plato. 



THE ENGLISH ACADEMIES 111 

knowledge of the academies of Old England as that they 
followed the lead of the Pennsylvania institutions, and not 
at all improbable that both groups were known and con- 
sidered by them. But the New England academies were 
very different from their prototypes over seas ; and the 
experiments in the middle states may be regarded as point- 
ing forward to this later American type.^ 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

We have a convenient issue of the Tractate on education in Oscae. 
Browning's edition : Cambridge University Press, 1890, pp. 43. From 
the same press has come an excellent edition of Locke's Some thoughts 
concerning education, prepared by Mr. R. H. Quick : Cambridge, 1880, 
pp. 240. 

The accounts of the English academies are scattered through the various 
histories of the dissenters. I have made use especially of those of Calamy 
{Continuation, etc), Toulmin, and Walter Wilson. 

Brief sketches of the histoi-y of the academies may be found in the 
following : 

[Hamilton, Richard Winter], Historical sketch of Airedale College, 
with brief notices of the northern dissenting academies. The Congre- 
gational Magazine (Loudon), new series, VIIL, pp. 581-592, October, 

1831; 

and in The American Quarterly Register (Audover, Mass., 1830), 11., 

p. 255 ; and 
The Quarterly Journal of Education (London, 1831), I., p. 49 ff. 

1 The parallel development of "academie.s" in Scotland and in Germany 
presents many interesting features. For the establishment of the Scotch acad- 
emies — beginning with that of Perth, in 1760 — see Grant, Burgh schools of 
Scotland, pt. 2, ch. 2, sec. 5, pp. 114-126. Tliey were establislied in response 
to a call for " a more liberal and more practical course of education," and laid 
emphasis on the teaching of science. These Scotch academies seem to have 
been generally governed by boards made up largely of the subscribers who had 
established the several schools, but with a representation also from the town 
councils. Id., p. 121 ft'. 

An account of the German Eitterakademien, institutions of a very difterent 
sort, appears in Paulsen, Geschichte dcs gelehrten Unterrichts, bk. 2, sec. 1, 
ch, 3. These schools flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

12 



178 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Tlie character of the educational institutions of the dissenters at a later 
date is discussed with much frankness in an article entitled : 

The defects of dissenting colleges. The Eclectic Ueview (London), new 
series, VIII., pp. 547-561, November, 1840; 

and in other issues of the same magazine. 
Eeference should be made also to : 

[Belknap, Rev. Jer., D.D., and Kippis, Dr. Andrew], Memoirs of 
the lives, characters, and writings of those two eminently pious and 
useful ministers of Jesus Christ, Dr. Isaac Watts and Dr. Philip 
Doddridge. Boston, 1793, pp. 301. 

Kippis's Life of Doddridge is prefixed to volume I. .of Doddridge's 
works. 

Isaac Watts ; his life and writings, his homes and friends [date and author 
not given]. London, The Religious Tract Society ; 

contains some interesting matter. The standard life of Watts, that by 
Gibbons, I have not seen. 

For the education of Daniel Defoe, we have : 

Wilson, Walter. Memoirs of the life and times of Daniel De Foe : con- 
taining a review of his writings and his opinions upon a variety of 
important matters, civil and ecclesiastical. In three volumes. Loudon, 
1830, I., ch. 2. 

Also 

Lee, William. Daniel De Foe : His life and recently discovered writings. 
London, 1869. 

The titles of Samuel Wesley's pamphlets against the educational institu- 
tions of the dissenters and of the replies by Samuel Palmer are given in a 
foot-note to page 10 of Lee's work. The only one of these pamphlets that 
I have found is the following, in the library of Columbia University : 

Palmer, Samuel. A vindication of the learning, loyalty, morals, and 
most Christian behaviour of the Dissenters toward the Church of Eng- 
land. In answer to Mr. Wesley's Defence of his letter concerning the 
Dissenters education in their private academies And to Mr. Sacheverel's 
injurious reflections upon them. London : Printed for J. Lawrence at 
the Angel in the Poultry, 1705, pp. 115. 

Defoe's Ussay upon projects and TJif present state of the parties in 
Great Britain were both printed anonymously, the former in 1697 and 
the latter in 1712. There is a copy of the first of these in the Boston 
Public Library, and of the other in the Library of Congress. The 
Essai/ npon projects is accessible in various reprints. 



CHAPTER IX 
EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 

In view of those beginnings which have already been 
traced, we may say that the academy movement was an 
outcome of nonconformity. While largely in line with the 
educational tradition of the time, it involved also a consid- 
erable range of educational dissent, along with the more 
obvious element of religious dissent. Especially in the 
eighteenth century, it was largely a middle-class movement. 
If there was in it something of crude philistinism, there was 
also in it some vital appreciation of the educational signifi- 
cance of that great movement by which the common people 
were rising to power and prominence. 

The great increase of sectarianism in America, where the 
several church establishments were less powerful than that 
of England, brought forward a new educational problem. 
How should education be promoted in a society split in 
every direction with religious diversity ? The significant 
fact was that there were in that society men who appre- 
ciated the need and value of education. There was a grow- 
ing number of good citizens who, however much they might 
differ as to religion, agreed in their love of learning. Such 
men gradually found it possible to work together on the 
boards of trustees of the new institutions. Much concession 
and adjustment was necessary ; but the co-operative scheme 
won its way as it was found to be workable. The history of 
the Philadelphia academy will give some idea of the general 
course of this movement. 

As early as 1743, Benjamin Eranklin had sketched a plan 
for the establishment of an academy. But the times were 



180 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

not propitious, and he was a man who could wait. Six 
years later the outlook was more favorable, and after con- 
sultation with some of his friends he published his Proposals 
relating to the education of youth in Pennsylvania. "The 
good education of youth," it read, " has been esteemed by 
wise men in all ages, as the surest foundation of the happi- 
ness both of private families and of commonwealths." The 
decline of learning in the colonies was deplored. Many of 
the fathers had been well educated in Europe ; but " the 
present race are not thought to be generally of equal abil- 
ity ; for, though the American youth are allowed not to 
want capacity, yet the best capacities require cultivation." 
It was accordingly proposed that some gentlemen of leisure 
and public spirit should secure a charter authorizing them 
to erect an academy. These trustees should take a personal 
interest in the school, and should undertake in practical 
ways to promote the welfare of its students when they 
should go forth to the duties of active life. 

It was further proposed that a building should be provided 
in a healthful situation, with garden, orchard, meadow, and 
field ; and furnished with a library, philosophical apparatus, 
and other appliances. There should be a rector and the 
necessary number of tutors under him. Provision should 
be made for boarders. Sports were recommended for the 
physical good of the students : running, leaping, wrestling, 
and swimming. 

" As to their studies, it would be well if they could be 
taught everything that is useful, and everything that is 
ornamental. But art is long and their time is short. It is 
therefore proposed, that they learn those things that are 
likely to be most useful and most ornamental ; regard being 
had to the several professions for which they are intended." 

All were to be taught penmanship, drawing (with per- 
spective) arithmetic (with accounts, and the first principles 
of geometry and astronomy), and the English language 
(grammar, oral reading, and composition). The greatest 
stress was laid upon studies in English. Authors of the 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 181 

late seventeenth and the early eighteenth century were rec- 
ommended for study ; but readings in history were still more 
strongly emphasized and were made to constitute the vital 
centre of the whole plan of instruction. " If history be 
made a constant part of their reading, . . . may not 
almost all kinds of useful knowledge be that way introduced 
to advantage ? " Geography, chronology, ancient customs, 
oratory, civil government, logic, languages, and even 
morality and religion, were to find their first entrance into 
the attention and interest of the students through the 
channel of history. 

But, the proposals continued, there should be also read- 
ings in natural history, both because of the utility of its 
several divisions and for the sake of the improvement of 
conversation. This study should be accompanied by practi- 
cal exercises in agriculture and horticulture. Commerce, 
industry, and mechanics would be entertaining and useful 
studies for all. 

With all this the academy should cultivate " that benig- 
nity of mind, which ... is the foundation of what is called 
good breeding," and should impress on the minds of the 
youth the idea of what constitutes true merit, which is " an 
inclination, joined with an ability, to serve mankind, one's 
country, friends, and family." True learning gives or in- 
creases the ability to perform such service. 

Franklin would gladly have made this academy an Eng- 
lish school pure and simple. But he yielded to men of 
wealth and learning whose co-operation was needed, and ; 
included both ancient and modern languages. As a pupil in 
the Boston Latin School, he had himself made only a begin- 
ning in the study of Latin. In the severe course of self- 
education which he had carried out during his early 
manhood, he had included a study of some of the modern 
languages. These he valued very highly because of practical 
advantages which they conferred. He even returned to the 
study of Latin, with some increased appreciation of its use- 
fulness ; but near the close of his life he referred to the 



182 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

teaching of Latin and Greek in the schools as the " chateau 
Iras of modern literature." He proposed that in the acad- 
emy the study of languages should be optional. But 
students of divinity should be taught Latin and Greek ; 
students of medicine should add French ; students of law 
should take Latin and French ; and future merchants, the 
modern languages, French, German, and Spanish. 

The Proposals were distributed among the public-spirited 
citizens of Philadelphia, and met with general favor. A 
subscription was soon set on foot with a view to carrying 
them into effect. This was very successful. The individual 
contributions, subscribed for a period of five years, soon 
amounted to the goodly sum of X800 a year. Then aid 
was solicited from the city government, and the response 
was a donation of £200 from the public treasury, with the 
added promise of £100 a year for five years. The subscribers 
chose twenty-four prominent citizens from their number to 
act as trustees of the funds thus secured. This board of 
trustees adopted a set of Constihitions of the Fnhlick Acad- 
emy In the City of Philadelphia, hired a house, engaged 
masters, and opened the school.^ 

The school was popular from the start, and the house was 
soon too small to hold it. It happened that the building 
erected in 1740 for the double purpose of providing a preach- 
ing place for Whitefield and other itinerants and housing a 
charity school, was now available. It is doubtful whether 
the proposed charity school had ever been opened. The 
property was encumbered by debt. Fortunately Franklin 
was one of the trustees of this hall and also a trustee of the 
new academy. He brought about an agreement between 
the two boards, by which the academy acquired the build- 
ing under promise that a charity school should be conducted 
on the premises. 

The Whitefield building was accordingly opened as the 
home of the academy in January, 1751. This was made a 

1 All in the year 1749, if Franklin's account, written years after, from 
memory, is correct. 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES - 183 

formal occasion, and a sermon was preached by the Eev. 
Eichard Peters. In due time a charity school, of lower 
grade than the academy, was opened in accordance with 
the terms of the transfer. Then a charter was secured 
from the proprietaries of the province, in 1753, incorpor- 
ating The Trustees of the Academy and Charitable School 
in the Province of Pennsylvania. This body was made 
self-perpetuating. Its members must always be residents 
of Pennsylvania, within five miles of the seat of the acad- 
emy. The trustees were authorized "to erect . . . and 
support an academy or any other kind of seminary of 
learning in any place within the said province of Pennsyl- 
vania, where they shalh judge the same to be most necessary 
and convenient for the instruction, improvement, and edu- 
cation of youth in any kind of literature, erudition, arts, and 
sciences, which they shall think fitting and proper to be 
taught." This was a remarkably broad provision. 

The academy was organized in three schools, the Latin, 
the English, and the mathematical, each having a separate 
master. The first rector, Mr. David Martin, died before he 
had been with the school a full year. Then the Rev. Francis 
Alison, who had conducted the Presbyterian " academy " at 
New London, was made master of the Latin school ; and 
seems later to have become rector of the academy. Mr. 
David James Dove was the English master. He devoted 
a part of each day to a private school for girls. In the 
academy, he had about ninety pupils ; but some difference 
having arisen between him and the trustees he withdrew 
after somewhat more than two years of service, and there- 
after conducted a private school for boys besides continuing 
his girls' school. His salary in the academy was £150 a 
year. 

The Latin master received £200 a year. It was originally 
intended that such instruction as tlie Latin scholars might 
receive in history, logic, English, etc., should be given by 
the Latin master; and the Latin master was expected to 
assist the English master as he might find opportunity. 



184 , THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

No assistant teacher or usher was to he provided in the 
Latin School for less than twenty boys, nor in the English 
school for less than forty boys. In the earlier days, the 
attendance in the Latin School seems to have been about 
sixty. Mr. Dove's ninety in the English School was reduced 
to about forty after his withdrawal. The tuition fee in each 
of these schools was £4 a year. Mr. Theophilus Grew was 
the "mathematical professor," at a salary of £125. As 
early as 1751 there were three "assistant tutors" employed 
in the academy, at a salary of £60 each.^ 

The Eev. William Smith, a graduate of the University 
of Aberdeen, and a clergyman of the Church of England, 
having come to America, became deeply interested in the 
movement for the establishment of King's College, and took 
occasion to publish his ideas upon the higher education in 
a work entitled A geoieral idea of the College of Mirania. 
This came to the notice of Franklin, who entered into 
correspondence with Mr. Smith with reference to the affairs 
of the academy. The result was that in 1754 Mr. Smith 
was appointed to the teaching force of the institution. A 
fourth school was then added, the philosophical. Mr. Smith 
(later Doctor of Divinity) was placed at the b'-ad of this 
school, in which he taught logic, rhetoric, and iiatural and 
moral philosophy, to the more advanced students. 
■, Then followed the reincorporation of the institution as 
the College, Academy, and Charitable School of Philadelphia. 
The new charter simply confirmed and extended the provis- 
ions of the earlier one, the chief addition being the power 
to confer academic degrees. Dr. Smith was made provost of 
the institution, and he continued at its head until 1779. 
Dr. Alison was made vice-provost. After the reorganization 
in 1755, the Latin and Philosophical schools were spoken of 
as the college, and the other two constituted the academy. 

It appears at once that the early history of this institution 
was very different from that of any other American school. 

1 Much interesting information concerning the early masters is found in 
Montgomery, History of the University of Pennsylvania, pp. 141-204. 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 185 

But some of its characteristics were typical, and may be re- 
garded as symptoms of the general change which was com- 
ing over our educational thought. 

C The ends which the academy was intended to serve were 
set forth by the trustees in their petition for aid from the 
city treasury. They were four in number :/ 

" 1. That the Youth of Pensilvania may have an opportunity of 
receiving a good Education at home, and be under no necessity of 
going abroad for it ; Whereby not only considerable Expense may 
be saved to the Country, but a stricter Eye may be had over their 
morals by their Friends and Relations. 

" 2. That a number of our Natives will be hereby qualified to 
bear Magistracies, and execute other public offices of Trust, with 
Reputation to themselves & Country ; There being at present great 
Want of Persons so qualified in the several Counties of this Pro- 
vince. And this is the more necessary now to be provided for by 
the English here, as vast Numbers of Foreigners are yearly imported 
among us, totally ignorant of our Laws, Customs and Language. 

" 3. That a number of the poorer Sort will be hereby qualified to 
act as Schoolmasters in the Country, to teach Children Reading, 
Writing, Arithmetic, and the Grammar of their Mother Tongue, 
and being of good morals and known cliaracter, may be recom- 
mended from the Academy to Country Schools for that purpose ; 
The Country suffering at present very much for want of good 
Schoolmasters, and obliged frequently to employ in their Schools, 
vicious imported Servants, or concealed Papists, who by their bad 
Examples and Instructions often deprave the Morals or corrupt the 
Principles of the Children under their Care. 

" 4. It is thought that a good Academy erected in Philadelphia, 
a healthy place where Provisions are plenty, situated in the Center 
of the Colonies, may draw a number of Students from the neighbor- 
ing Provinces, who must spend Considerable Sums yearly among 
us, in Payment for their Lodging, Diet, Apparel, &c., which will 
be an Advantage to our Traders, Artisans, and Owners of Houses 
and Lands. . . ." 

These arguments call for a few words of comment. The 
need of home schools to enable native-born Americans to 



186 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

compete with foreigners in public and commercial employ- 
ments, was much in the minds of thinking men among the 
colonists. We have seen that the consideration of this 
need entered largely into the discussions which arose about 
the county school system of Maryland. It became a subject 
of dispute in Virginia also. With the growth of business 
concerns in American cities, it became necessary to send 
to Europe for young men who had received a training not 
easily got in this country.^ This state of things plainly 
demanded some sort of remedial action on the part of the 
colonists. 

The need of education because of the increase of foreign 
immigration became much more serious as time went on. 
We shall see that the service of the academies in providing 
the country with better teachers commanded much atten- 
tion when the academy movement got well under way. 
And this is not the only instance in which we find that 
those of " the poorer sort " were thought of for future 
schoolmasters. The fear of secret Eoman Catholic influence 
which is referred to, was deep-seated in the minds of Eng- 
lishmen everywhere, and was, of course, based on political 
as well as religious considerations. 

It may well be supposed that the religious bearings of edu- 
cation would be taken less seriously by such a man as Franklin 
than the thrifty forethought expressed in the fourth argument. 
This argument was reinforced by European precedents, and it 
was doubtless as influential as any in securing the desired sub- 
sidy from the town council. The realism of the paragraph 
gets its finishing touch in that delicate allusion to school- 
boy appetite. How well the academy fulfilled the expecta- 

1 Mr. Weeden tells of a request sent by Peter Faneuil, in 1736, to his 
London correspondents, that they would send him from "Christ Hospital a 
Cleaver Sober young youth that has had the Small Pox wct is fitting to be 
bro" up in my Counting House, one that wrights and siphers well." Eco- 
nomic and social history, II., p. 618. See also his account of Thomas Amory, 
son of a South Carolina merchant, who was educated under the great Master 
Busby at Westminster School, near the end of the seventeenth century. Id. , 
p. 566. 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 187 

tion of commercial advantage to the city appears from a 
communication by " Philo-Marylandicus" in the Maryland 
G-azette, in 1754. The writer was urging the establishment 
of a college in Maryland ; and in support of that project he 
presented an estimate of the amount of good money drawn 
from Maryland to Philadelphia by the academy in that city. 
At least one hundred Marylanders, he declared, were at- 
tending the academy, and these might be expected to spend 
fifty pounds sterling a year each in Philadelphia, making a 
total of five thousand pounds ! ^ 

The religious difficulty had been met by making represen- 
l tatives of different denominations members of the first board 
of trustees. This probably indicated a purpose on the part 
of the promoters to be fair to all Protestant sects and to be 
bound to none. Their attitude is a sign that the transfer 
of emphasis in education from religion to morals was already 
begun. Franklin would surely favor such a change of front, 
in so far as it might be found politic ; for his religious creed 
was short and simple, and he had made systematic en- 
deavors to attain to moral perfection. 

A great subscription was raised in England for the col- 
lege and academy in 1762-64. This was made the occa- 
sion of a joint letter to the trustees by the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, the proprietaries of the province, and an eminent 
dissenter, recommending in substance that the distribution 
of trusteeships among the several denominations be made 
permanent. The trustees accordingly made a formal dec- 
laration that neither " the members of the Church of Eng- 
land or those dissenting from them [should] {in any future 
Election . . . ) be put on any worse Footing in this Serai- 
nary than they are [at the time referred to]." In the 
course of the troubles which befell the institution during 
the Eevolutionary War, it was charged that this decla- 
ration was in effect a narrowing of the original intent of 
the foundation. 

Franklin had to make many concessions to get the acad- 

1 Quoted by Steiner, History of education in Maryland, p. 29, 



188 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

emy launched in the first instance, and it finally swung so 
far away from his original purpose that he found himself 
much out of sympathy with its management. He was 
especially disappointed in the English school, which had 
been the centre of his interest in the undertaking. 

New schools devoted to new ideas tend generally to be- 
come assimilated with the educational traditions about 
them. This was the case with the academies, and the 
academy at Philadelphia presents a striking example. 
The classical tradition was strong when this school was 
founded — a tradition backed up by all the artificial clas- 
sicism of Augustan England, and of the European mode 
established by the France of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. 
Orators decorated their speeches with Latin quotations. 
Contributors to the newspapers signed themselves Cato 
or Justitia or P/it'/o-something-or- other. These things had 
degenerated into a mere shibboleth of an educated class. 
The new life that was to be put into classical studies by 
the New Humanism of Germany was not yet felt. 

The growth of nationalism and of national literatures had 
hardly begun to affect the schools. It took the romantic- 
movement and the American and French revolutions to give 
the mother tongue an assured position in programmes of 
instruction. This was true of other countries as well as of 
England and her colonies. So the English school in the 
academy at Philadelphia was in advance of the times. It is 
important, however, in that it looked to the future. 

Before the academy was fairly started, Franklin had pre- 
pared a Sketch of an English school. This was a proposed 
course of studies in English for a school of six classes. - Its 
recommendations run about as follows : Pupils should have 
learned to read and write before entering this school. In 
the lowest class, they are to study the rules of English 
grammar, orthography, and short pieces, such as Croxall's 
Fables and little stories. Attention is to be given to the 
meaning of words and to oral reading. In the second class, 
the pupils will read short pieces like those of the Spectator, 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 189 

with some grammatical study and an account of the mean- 
ings of words, of sentences, and of the piece as a whole. 
Other lessons may be devoted to selections from plays and 
speeches, letters, Hudibrastic and heroic verse, etc. Such 
lessons should be chosen as contain useful instruction. 
When the meaning has been mastered, attention should 
be devoted to oral reading. Each boy should have a 
dictionary. 

In the third class, especial attention should be given to 
rhetoric and the practice of speaking. The reading of his- 
tory is to begin with Kollin's ancient history, and the read- 
ing of natural and mechanic history, with the Spectacle de 
la Nature. Composition is to be the special concern of the 
fourth class. The letters of Pope and Sir William Temple 
are recommended as models. Dr. Johnson's ^ Ethica elementa, 
or first principles of morality, is to be read in this class. 
The fifth class is to write little essays in prose and verse, 
and read Dr. Johnson's Noetioa, or first principles of hu- 
man knowledge. The sixth, besides continuing studies 
already begun, is to read the best English authors, as Tillot- 
son, Milton, Locke, Addison, Pope, Swift, the higher papers 
in the Spectator and Guardian, the best translations of 
Homer, Virgil, and Horace, of Telemachus, Travels of 
Cyrus, etc. 

The school hours should be so arranged that some classes 
might be with the writing master, improving their hands, 
and some with the mathematical master, studying arith- 
metic, accounts, geography, use of the globes, drawing, 
mechanics, etc., while the rest are under the English mas- 
ter's instruction. 

Some forty years after the publication of this sketch, near 
the close of his long life, Franklin addressed to the trustees 
of the college and academy a protest against their treatment 
of the English school. He reviewed the history of the 
institution, showing that the English school had suffered 

1 This was Samuel Johnson, the American, afterward president of King's 
College. 



190 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

from systematic discrimination in favor of the classical 
studies, until the English master had heen reduced to the 
position of a mere assistant to the Latin master, whose 
pupils he instructed in the English branches, or of a teacher 
of little boys in the elements commonly taught in a dame 
school. He declared that " the Latinists were combined to 
decry the English school as useless. It was without example, 
they said, as indeed they still say, that a school for teaching 
the vulgar tongue, and the sciences in that tongue was ever 
joined with a college, and the Latin masters were fully com- 
petent to teach the English." He proposed, finally, that 
since the interests of the English school were not properly 
guarded under the arrangement then existing, that school 
should be set apart as a separate institution and given its 
share of the common funds. It does not appear that action 
was taken along the line of this suggestion.^ 

In the third quarter of the eighteenth century, there were 
other schools in the middle colonies and farther south which 
were commonly called academies. But no such institution 
has thus far come to light, beside the one at Philadelphia, 
that was regularly incorporated under this designation pre- 
vious to the breaking out of the Revolution. The private 
establishments which came into existence about this time 
and were known as academies, contributed much to our later 
colonial education, and some of them after a time grew into 
real American academies. A few of these have been men- 
tioned in the chapter on Later Colonial Schools. 

There was a strongly marked individuality in the Mora- 
vian foundation of Nazareth Hall, in Pennsylvania. It 
stood upon a great tract of land purchased in 1^40 by 
George Whitefield, and later conveyed by him to the Mora- 
vian Brethren. This domain became nominally the prop- 
erty of the Countess Zinzendorf. It was the only manor 
granted by the proprietaries of Pennsylvania which was 
vested with the right of court baron ; and the feudal char- 
acter of the tenure of the estate is shown by the fact that 

^ The text of the more importaut documents relating to this school is 
givcTi in TiiOKTE, Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania. 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 191 

it was held on condition of rendering service to the propri- 
etaries by delivering to them, in June of each year, if de- 
manded, a single red rose. 

The building known as Nazareth Hall was erected in 
1755-56 as a manor house, with a view especially to accom- 
modating Count Zinzendorf and his retinue when that noble 
bishop should revisit this country, Zinzendorf died before 
he could return to America ; but the Hall was serviceable 
in many ways to the manor, and to the Moravian church. 
A synod convened there in 1757, presided over by Bishop 
Spangenberg, the members of which were escorted back 
and forth by armed men, for fear of an attack by the 
hostile Indians. Then, in 1759, it was first opened as a 
boarding school for Moravian youth. 

At that time the Moravians were living under a peculiar, 
half-communistic system. The boys sent to this school 
were educated at the expense of the communion for which it 
was established. This system came to an end in 1764, and 
the school gradually dwindled, until it was closed in 1779. 

When peace had been restored, after the Eevolution, steps 
were taken to have the Hall reopened as a school for boys, 
under Moravian auspices, but admitting others on equal 
terms. It was announced as the " Paedagogium, or Boarding 
School, about to be established by the United Brethren at 
Nazareth." The general direction of the institution was 
lodged in the officers of the church in Pennsylvania, No 
boy might be admitted under the age of seven nor above 
the age of twelve. Instruction was offered in the elemen- 
tary branches, and in the English, German, Latin, French, 
and Greek languages, history, geography, mathematics, 
music, and drawing. Particular attention to the health and 
morals of the scholars was promised, with specific refer- 
ence to " proper exercises, cleanliness, and gentleness of de- 
portment." 

The institution became widely known for the excellence 
of its instruction and discipline. Pupils came from neigh- 
boring states, from Europe, and in considerable numbers 



192 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

from the West Indies. John Konkaput, a Stockbridge 
Indian, was educated here at government expense. Two hun- 
dred and ninety-five boys were entered in the first twenty- 
five years of the school's existence, eighty-three of whom 
were Moravians. German was the ordinary language of 
the institution at the start ; but English soon took the first 
place, while German still received much attention. In the 
earlier years, the boys were required to use English and 
German, each three days in the week, for all ordinary 
conversation.^ 

The county schools of Maryland had generally sunk into 
a very sorry condition before the end of the colonial period. 
But a new educational spirit was coming into the life of 
that colony, which manifested itself in the establishment of 
schools of the newer type. The term academy first appears 
in the statutes of Maryland in the year 1778. Lower 
Marlboro Academy had been erected and supported for a 
time at private expense. In 1778, the legislature author- 
ized the sale of the property of the free school of Calvert 
County for the benefit of this institution, and vested its 
board of trustees with corporate powers.^ Washington 
Academy, in Somerset County, was also begun as a private 
enterprise of " several gentlemen of different religious per- 
suasion," who intended it simply for the benefit of their 
own children. This was in 1767. Other children were 
admitted from time to time. The school grew in public 
favor. The teaching force was increased. And finally, in 
1779, a regular charter of incorporation was secured,^ 

The founding of the two Phillips academies, at Ando- 
ver, Massachusetts, and Exeter, New Hampshire, marks a 
second beginning of the academy movement. For these 
two schools furnished the model and inspiration of many 

1 Reichel, Nazareth Hall, passim. 

2 Laws of Maryland, Kilty's revision, October, 1778, ch. 16. 

8 Id., November, 1779, ch. 15. An account of the origin and progress 
of this school was published by the trustees in the Maryland Journal and 
Baltimore Advertiser of November 23, 1784. It is reprinted in Steiner, 
History of education in Maryland, p. 30, foot-note. 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 193 

later institutions established in the northern states, both 
east and west. 

Samuel Phillips took the first steps in this enterprise. 
He was the descendant of a goodly line of Harvard gradu- 
ates. His father, also named Samuel, had been for a time 
master of a grammar school at Andover, and later attained 
to prominence in business and in politics. The younger 
Samuel prepared for college under Master Moody in the 
new Dummer School at Byfield, and was graduated at 
Harvard in 1771. His name at first stood eighth in the list 
of his class, which numbered sixty-three. But his father 
represented to the faculty that he was entitled to the 
seventh place, and he was accordingly advanced. It is 
said that this case was the immediate occasion of the change 
at Harvard by which the placing of students according to 
the rank of their fathers was discontinued. 

When his college course was finished, the young man soon 
made a place for himself. He was a member of the provin- 
cial congress. He undertook the manufacture of gunpowder 
for Washington's army, and came into close relations with 
the Commander. He was in the convention that framed the 
first state constitution of Massachusetts. He became judge 
and state senator, and at the time of his death was lieu- 
tenant-governor of the commonwealth. 

From such accounts as have come down to us we are led to 
think of him as preternaturally grave, industrious, and meth- 
odical. But he took a quiet pleasure in the mirth of others, 
and was a lover of children. He was deeply religious, and 
feared the laxness of doctrine which he saw creeping into 
the churches. He was known at the same time as " an en- 
thusiast for virtue." His religion was intensely ethical. 

He was a devoted student of the writings of those eminent 
nonconformists whose names are associated with the early 
English academies. He provided for the gratuitous circula- 
tion of some of the works of Philip Doddridge and Matthew 
Henry and Isaac Watts. Doddridge's Sermons on the religious 
education of children, was among the books which he espe- 

13 



^^v 



194 TEE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

cially recommended. Josiah Quincy said of him that he 
seemed to have all of the poetry of Watts by heart. 

"With all his conservatism he was an innovator. His 
fertile mind was intent upon improvements ; upon discuss- 
ing principles and devising schemes, which would break in 
salutarily upon the old order of things. Sometimes his best 
friends, and especially his father and uncles, who were yet 
sure to second his projects, would hint that he had a little 
too much of the spirit of what we, in our day, term ' young 
America.' " ^ This mixture of conservatism and progress is 
fairly representative of the academy movement, with which 
his name is so intimately connected. 

Several members of the Phillips family were associated 
with Judge Samuel Phillips in the establishment of the 
academy at Andover, notably his father and his father's two 
brothers, John Phillips of Exeter and William Phillips of 
Boston. John Phillips, on his own account, became the 
founder of the academy at Exeter. He had preached in his 
young manhood, soon after graduating from Harvard Col- 
lege. But becoming deeply impressed with the discourses 
of Whitefield, to which he had listened, he declared himself 
unqualified for the ministry, and gave it up. For a time he 
was teacher of a classical school. He was prominent in 
business, became colonel of militia and justice of one of the 
New Hampshire courts, and was a liberal benefactor of 
Princeton and Dartmouth Colleges. 

Josiah Quincy, writing in 1855, said of him : 

" I visited him at Exeter in his family ... I spent three or 
four days there, and partook of his simple meals. I heard him at 
his family devotions. I shall never forget the patriarchal sweetness 
of his countenance, or the somewhat stern, yet not unattractive 
manner, in which he greeted and responded. He had an austere 
faith, softened by natural temperament and inherent kindliness of 
spirit." "^ 

^ Taylor, Meirwir of Judge Phillips, p. 295. 

2 The Phillips family is connected with much that is of the test in New 
England. It has shown a remarkable tendency to rise to some new greatness 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 195 

It was in the midst of the Eevolutionary War that these 
academies were established. Samuel Phillips, the father, 
and Dr. John,i his brother, became the founders of the 
Andover school by executing a deed of gift for its en- 
dowment, on the twenty-first of April, 1778. A "consti- 
tution" for the proposed institution was embodied in the 
deed. 

According to this document, the donors proposed " to lay 
the foundation of a public free school or academy for the 
purpose of instructing Youth, not only in English and Latin 
Grammar, Writing, Arithmetic, and those Sciences wherein 
they are commonly taught ; but more especially to learn them 

the GREAT END AND REAL BUSINESS OF LIVING." Further on, " it 

is again declared, that the first and i^'^^'i^ncipal object of this 
Institution is the promotion of true piety and virtue ; the 
second, instruction in the English, Latin, and Greek Lan- 
guages, together with Writing, Arithmetic, Music, and the 
Art of Speaking ; the third, practical Geometry, Logic, and 
Geography ; and the fourth, such other of the liberal Arts 
and Sciences or Languages, as opportunity and ability may 
hereafter admit, and as the trustees shall direct." 

Only Protestants may be trustees or instructors in this 
school. Its advantages are thrown open equally to youth 
" from every quarter ; " but they must first be able to read 
English well. The trustees, however, have power to provide 
for a limited number of beginners. The principal instructor 
in the school must be " a professor of the christian reli- 
gion, of exemplary manners, of good natural abilities and 
literary acquirements, of a good acquaintance with human 
nature, of a natural aptitude for instruction and govern- 
ment." Much stress is laid on the making of a suitable 

in successive generations. The Josiah Quincy referred to above, sometime 
president of Harvard College, was connected with the family through his 
mother; Wendell Phillips, the anti-slavery orator, was descended from a 
cousin of the founders of the academy at Andover. And Phillips Brooks was 
a great-grandson of Judge Phillips. 

1 Harvard College conferred on him the degree of LL.D. Or was it Dart- 
mouth ? The accounts at hand do not agree. 



196 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

appointment to this office. No other consideration than 
that of qualifications is to enter into the selection. 

In addition to the ordinary duties of a master toward his 
pupils, the principal instructor is charged, "critically and 
constantly " to " observe the variety of their natural tempers 
and solicitously endeavor to bring them under such disci- 
pline as may tend most effectually to promote their own 
satisfaction and the happiness of others." He is " to en- 
courage the Scholars to perform some manual labor, such as 
gardening, or the like ; so far as it is consistent with cleanli- 
ness and the inclination of their parents." It is expected 
that many of the students will become ministers ; and the 
master is particularly directed to give instruction in the 
cardinal doctrines of religion as set forth in the Scriptures. 
That everything may be open and above-board in the 
management of its financial affairs, there is a provision that 
a full record of donations to the institution and of all ex- 
penditures shall be kept open for all men to read.^ 

The school was opened in due form on the thirtieth of 
April, 1778. The Eev. Jonathan French, one of the 
trustees, preached a sermon on that occasion. Mr. Eliphalet 
Pearson, the teacher of the town grammar school, was the 
first preceptor, and continued in that office for the term of 
eight years. He had been a fellow pupil with Judge Phillips, 
at the Dummer School, and was also a graduate of Harvard 
College. When he withdrew from the preceptorship of the 
academy, it was to become a professor in the college. 

October 4, 1780, the school was incorporated under the 
title of Phillips Academy, becoming the first chartered 
academy in New England. The act of incorporation reiter- 
ated and confirmed the chief provisions of the constitution. 
The school was placed under the control of a board of 
twelve trustees (the number might be increased to thirteen 
but must not be less than seven), who, with their successors, 
were declared to be " the true and sole Visitors, Trustees, 

1 The quotations are from the pamphlet edition of tliis Constitution, issued 
iu 1828. 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 197 

and Governors " of the institution. The " principal Instruc- 
tor " must always be a member of this board ; a majority of 
the members must be laymen and respectable freeholders ; 
and a majority also must be men who were not inhabi- 
tants of the town in which the school might be situated. 
Under these limitations, vacancies in the board were to be 
filled by vote of the remaining members. By vote of two- 
thirds of the trustees, the school might be removed to any 
other more suitable location in the state of Massachusetts. 

Such was the simple and sufficient form of administration 
settled by law. The school was prosperous from the start. 
No ill luck followed upon its opening with exactly thirteen 
pupils in attendance ; and the number was speedily in- 
creased.^ After the first term, provision was made for an 
assistant teacher. 

The donations of four members of the Phillips family to 
this institution amounted to about eighty-five thousand 
dollars, a very considerable sum for that period. The 
several sowrces of this fund have been given as follows : 

From the Hon. Samuel Phillips, of North 
Andover $6,000 

From the Hon. John Phillips, LL.D., of 

Exeter 31,000 

From the Hon. William Phillips, of 

Boston 6,000 

From His Honor, William Phillips, of 

Boston (to the Academy) 28,000 

From the same (to the Theological Semi- 
nary, established later in connection 
with the Academy) 14,000 ^ 

^ The biographer of Judge Phillips has a whimsical note on the annvs 
mirabilis in which the academy charter was granted. The legislative act of 
incorporation was the last act passed under the old government of Massachu- 
setts. The next act was passed under the new state constitution, which Judge 
Phillips had helped to frame. The winter that preceded was the famous " hard 
winter ; " the " dark day " had occurred in the spring ; and the Boston news- 
papers told of Arnold's treason the day after the charter was granted to the 
academy ! Taylor, Memoir of Samuel Phillips, pp. 215-217. 

2 Id., p. 260, foot-note. 



198 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The founders expressed in their Constitution the hope that 
their school might lead to the establishment of others on 
the same principles ; and John Phillips proceeded without 
delay to insure the realization of this hope. The Phillips 
Exeter Academy, which he endowed in his home town, was 
incorporated by the legislature of New Hampshire by act of 
April 3, 1781. The charter follows so closely the wording 
of that of the Andover school that it calls for no special 
remark, except that the number of trustees provided in 
this case was seven instead of thirteen. A " constitution " 
was drawn up by the founder, expressed for the most part 
in the same terms as the similar document for Phillips 
Andover, 

The original endowment consisted of wild lands and 
interest-bearing notes, the total value of which was esti- 
mated before the death of the founder at £8,000. A later 
estimate, which includes the value of Dr. Phillips' bequests 
to the academy, shows that the institution received from its 
founder, all told, an amount not far from sixty-five thousand 
dollars.^ 

The school was opened early in 1783, and on the first of 
May of that year there was a formal dedication of the build- 
ing erected for its use. The first principal, William Wood- 
bridge, resigned on account of ill health, after five years of 
service. Then came Benjamin Abbot, who ruled over the 
institution with great power and wisdom for the term of 
fifty years. Little Daniel Webster came to him for school- 
ing in 1796, Edward Everett finished his preparation for 
college here, at the age of thirteen. Lewis Cass came to the 
school at the age of ten, a headstrong boy, fond of pranks 
and of out- door life ; and here he remained for five years 
and made a very good record. The standard of scholarship 
was low at the start. There were only two studying Latin 
when Benjamin Abbot appeared on the scene. But under 
his management the academy was speedily advanced to the 
foremost rank of American schools. 

1 Cunningham, Familiar sketches, pp. 69-72. 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 199 

There followed in quick succession a notable line of such 
foundations : Leicester and Derby and Groton Academies in 
Massachusetts, Clinton Academy and Erasmus Hall on 
Long Island, Morris Academy at Morristown, New Jersey, 
the Bingham School at Pittsboro, North Carolina, and many 
others that gained a goodly fame. 

In Winterbotham's View of the American United States, 
we have a general account of education in the several states 
during Washington's second presidential term. So much of 
this view as relates to secondary education may be sum- 
marized as follows : 

New Hampshire. — The old laws required every town of 
one hundred families to keep a grammar school. This law 
fell somewhat into neglect before the war, and still more in 
later years. The unhappy state of science and of virtue dur- 
ing this period excited philanthropic persons to devise other 
methods of education. The result was the founding of 
academies. The Phillips Academy at Exeter is particularly 
described, and those at New Ipswich, Atkinson, Amherst, 
Charlestown, and Concord are mentioned briefly. 

Massachusetts. — The laws relating to elementary schools 
and grammar schools in towns are mentioned, and the re- 
mark follows : 

" These laws respecting schools are not so well regarded 
in many parts of the state as the wise purposes which they 
were intended to answer, and the happiness of the people 
require." Of Boston it is said : " There are seven public 
schools, supported wholly at the expense of the town, and 
in which the children of every class of citizens freely asso- 
ciate. , . . Perhaps there is not a town in the world, the 
youth of which more fully enjoy the benefits of school edu- 
cation, than at Boston." ^ The writer continues : " Next in 

^ We find in this account of the schools of Boston an instance of the early 
use of the expression "grammar scliools " in a sense somewhat like that which 
now commonly attaches to the expression in this country. The seven schools 
of Boston are enumerated as "the Latin grammar school;" " the three Eng- 
lish grammar schools," in which " the children of both sexes, from seven to 



200 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

importance to the grammar schools are the academies, in 
which, as well as in the grammar schools, young gentlemen 
are fitted for admission to the university." Mention is made 
of the Dummer, Phillips, Leicester, Williamstown, and 
Taunton academies, and the Derby School at Hingham. 

Maine. — Four academies are mentioned, those of Hallo- 
well, Berwick, Fryeburg, and Machias, which " have been 
incorporated by the legislature, and endowed with handsome 
grants of the public lands." 

Rhode Island. — The ignorance of " the bulk of the in- 
habitants " is remarked. An exception is made in favor of 
Providence and Newport. " At Newport there is a flourish- 
ing academy, under the direction of a rector and tutors, 
who teach the learned languages, English grammar, geog- 
raphy, &c." 

Connecticut. — " In no part of the world is the education 
of all ranks of people more attended to than in Connecticut." 
The provision for county grammar schools is noted. Men- 
tion is made of the Hopkins grammar schools at Hartford 
and New Haven. "Academies have been established at 
Greenfield, Plainfield, Norwich, Wyndham, and Pomfret, 
some of which are flourishing." 

New York. — " There are eight incorporated academies in 
different parts of the State ; but parts of the country are yet 
either unfurnished with schools, or the schools which they 
have are kept by low, ignorant men, which are worse than 
none. . . . We are happy to add that the legislature have 
lately patronized collegiate and academic education, by grant- 
ing a large gratuity to the colleges and academies in this 
State, which, in addition to their former funds, renders^ their 
endowments handsome, and adequate to their expenditures." 

fourteen j'ears of age, are instructed in spelling, accenting and reading the 
English language, both prose and verse, with propriety, also in English gram- 
mar and composition, together with the rudiments of geographj' ; " and " the 
other three schools," in which" the same children are taught writing and arith- 
metic." This nomenclature was probably taken from the new rules for the 
schools of Boston, drawn up in 1789. 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 201 

Neio Jersey. — Of Nassau Hall (Princeton) it is said : 
" There is a grammar school of about twenty scholars, con- 
nected with the college, under the superintendence of the 
president, and taught sometimes by a senior scholar, and 
sometimes by a graduate;" and of Queen's College (now 
Eutgers) : " The grammar school, which is connected with 
the college, consists of between thirty and forty students, 
under the care of the trustees." The academies of the state 
are commended, and seven of them receive individual men- 
tion : viz., those of Freehold, Trenton, Hackensack, Orange- 
dale, Elizabethtown, Burlington, and Newark. " Besides 
these, there are grammar schools at Springfield, Morristown, 
Bordentown, Amboy, &c." 

Pennsylvania. — The academy at Philadelphia is men- 
tioned. " The Episcopalians have an academy at York 
town, in York county. There are also academies at German 
town, at Pittsburgh, at Washington, at Allen's town, and 
other places ; these are endowed by donations from the 
legislature, and by liberal contributions of individuals." 
" The schools for young men and young women in Bethle- 
hem and Nazareth, under the direction of the people called 
Moravians, are upon the best establishment of any schools 
in America." 

Maryland. — Washington Academy is mentioned, and the 
fact that " provision is made for free schools in most of 
the counties ; though some are entirely neglected, and very 
few carried on with any success. . . . But the revolution, 
among other happy effects, has roused the spirit of educa- 
tion, which is fast spreading its salutary influences over this 
and the other southern States." 

Virginia. — " There are several academies in Virginia ; 
one at Alexandria, one at Norfolk, and others in other 
places." The great scheme of public education for Vir- 
ginia which had been proposed — under Jefferson's leader- 
ship — is summarized, and its provisions are cordially 
approved. 

North Carolina. — " There is a good academy at Warren- 



202 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

ton, another at Williamsborough in Granville, and three or 
four others in the State, of considerable note." 

South Carolina. — " Gentlemen of fortune, before the late 
war, sent their sons to Europe for education. During the 
late war and since, they have generally sent them to the 
middle and northern states. Those who have been at this 
expense in educating their sons, have been but compara- 
tively few in number, so that the literature of the State is 
at a low ebb. Since the peace, however, it has begun to 
flourish. There are several respectable academies at Charles- 
ton ; one at Beaufort on Port Eoyal island ; and several 
others in different parts of the State. , . . Part of the old 
barracks at Charleston has been handsomely fitted up, and 
converted into a college, and there are a number of students ; 
but it does not yet merit a more dignified name than that 
of a respectable academy. . . . The college at Cambridge 
is no more than a grammar school." 

Georgia. — The act for the establishment of " The Univer- 
sity of Georgia," with its provision for an academy in each 
county, receives extended notice.^ 



BIBLIOGEAPHICAL NOTES 

The histories of the University of Pennsylvania, by Wood, Thokpe, and 
Montgomery, and the JForks of Franklin, edited by John Bigelow, 
especially volume I., containing the Autobiography, are rich in material 
relating to the early history of the Academy at Pliiladelphia. 

Por the two Phillips academies we have much scattered information and 
two or three volumes of importance. Taylor's Memoir of Samuel 

1 Op. cit., II. and III., passim. In this and the following chapters, no 
attempt is made to limit closely the use of the term acadanij. While we 
may speak of an "academy type," in recognition of certain dominant ten- 
dencies in the schools of this period, it will be remembered that this type is 
rather loosely dehned and has admitted of much variation. In the narrower 
sense an academy, in this country, is an incorporated, undenominational 
school of secondary grade, under the control of a self-perpetuating board of 
trustees, and not conducted for pecuniary profit. But institutions bearing 
this designation nuiy differ from one another in any of these particulars. 



EARLY AMERICAN ACADEMIES 203 

Phillips, Park's Annals, and the works on the Phillips Exeter Academy 
by Bell and Cunningham have been chiefly consulted. 

W. Winterbotham's work is in four volumes, and is entitled An histor- 
ical, geographical, commercial, and philosophical view of the American 
United States, and of the European settlements in America and the West 
Indies. London: Printed for the Editor, 1795. Extended excerpts are 
given in Barnard's Am. Journ, Ed., XXIV., pp. 137-157. 



o^ 



CHAPTEE X 
EARLY STATE SYSTEMS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

We have come to the time when French thought is to 
exercise an appreciable influence on American education. 
The philosophical and revolutionary literature of France in 
the eighteenth century was full of educational theories, and 
the tendency of these theories was strongly secular. Along 
with the doctrine that education should return to nature 
appeared the doctrine that the direction of education should 
return to the state. 

We find Helvetius pushing the claims of education to the 
last extreme, making it all-powerful in the determination of 
human character. He deplored the fact that instruction 
was pulled this way and that by the opposing demands of 
church and state, and would put an end to this difficulty by 
simply having the state absorb the church. We find La 
Chalotais taking a leading part in the campaign for the 
expulsion of the Jesuits, and putting forth his idea of edu- 
cational organization in the Essai d'education nationale. 
We find Voltaire describing education as a "government 
undertaking." We find Turgot declaring that, " the study of 
the duty of citizenship ought to be the foundation of all 
the other studies." 

" I do not presume to exclude ecclesiastics," said La 
Chalotais, " but I protest against the exclusion of laymen. 
I dare claim for the nation an education which depends 
only on the state, because it belongs essentially to the state ; 
because every state has an inalienable and indefeasible right 
to instruct its members ; because, finally, the children of 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 205 

the state ought to be educated by the members of the 
state." ^ 

Into the midst of this discussion came Eousseau with the 
enlivening abstractions and impossibilities of the ^mile. 
Numerous other educational essays and treatises were put 
forth. But of especial significance for its suggestions rela- 
tive to the making of systems of instruction, was the Plan 
of a university drawn up by Diderot, for Catherine of Eussia, 
about the time of the American Eevolution. 

" A university," wrote Diderot, " is a school which is open 
without discrimination to all the children of a nation, 
where masters paid by the state initiate them into the 
elementary knowledge of all sciences." He compared the 
course of instruction to " a great avenue, at the entrance of 
which appears a crowd of people who cry out continually, 
' Instruction, instruction ! We know nothing unless we be 
taught' " Some can go farther on this avenue than others. 
The studies should be arranged accordingly. Such as are 
most generally useful should come first: the essential or 
primitive knowledges, which all should have. Such studies 
as are next in usefulness — those needed by the greatest 
number less than the whole people — should follow; and 
so on to the end. 

Eeading, writing, and the first principles of arithmetic 
should be mastered before the pupil enters this public 
school. Having entered, he first comes under the instruc- 
tion of the faculty of arts. Here he is offered a course of 
study, divided into eight classes, comprising the mathe- 
matical and natural sciences, logic, the languages, and 
rhetoric. Parallel with this are two other courses, which, 
all will take : one in metaphysics, morals, religion, history, 
geography, and economics ; the other in drawing and the 
principles of architecture. There is a suggestion, too remote 
for serious consideration in the eighteenth century, of a 

^ Cf. CoMPAYRii;, History of pedagogy, ch. 14-16; and Sherwood, 
The University of the State of New York (Circ. Inf. no. 3, 1900), pt. 1, 
ch. 3. 



206 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

course of " exercises," — music, dancing, horsemanship, and 
swimming. A prophecy is added, that the day will come 
when schools of agriculture and commerce will be estab- 
lished, whether within or without the university, not only 
in the cities but in the remoter country districts of the 
realm. 

After the faculty of arts come the other traditional facul- 
ties of medicine, jurisprudence, and theology. It is evident 
from his earlier Essai sur Us etudes en Bussie, that Diderot 
was influenced to some extent, in the making of this scheme, 
by his knowledge of the universities and gymnasiums of Ger- 
many. But in many particulars he drew far apart from his 
German models. His university was an institution for the 
\ education of the whole people, beyond the first elements of 
I learning. He entered an eloquent plea for the education of 
\all. The thatched cottages of the realm, he declared, were 
to the palaces in the proportion of ten thousand to one ; so 
the likelihood was as ten thousand to one that genius, 
talent, and virtue would emerge from a cottage rather than 
from a palace.^ 

It was the French view of the administration of educa- 
tional affairs by the state, rather than the doctrine of natural- 
ism, which became influential in this country at an early 
period. And we are not surprised that Thomas Jefferson 
should have been one of the first Americans to respond to 
this influence. 

Jefferson drew suggestions from so wide a range of con- 
ference and reading, that his schemes cannot be looked upon 
as a mere working out of French ideas. Far from it. He 
learned from Switzerland and Scotland and Old and New 
England and from many other sources, and reacted vigor- 
ously on all that came to him. But the French influence is 
more conspicuous in his proposals than any other that has 
not already appeared in this narrative. 

In 1779 Jefferson, as a member of the committee appointed 
to revise the laws of Virginia, presented to the legislature of 

1 (Eiivres de Denis Diderot, XII., pp. 153-234. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 207 

the state a comprehensive bill, " For the more general diffu- 
sion of knowledge." Some of the more important provisions 
of this bill are summarized in his Hotes on the state of 
Virginia : 

" This bill proposes to lay ofl" every county into small districts 
of five or six miles square, called hundreds, and in each of them 
to establish a school for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. 
The tutor to be supported by the hundred, and every person in it 
entitled to send their children three years gratis, and as much 
longer as they please, paying for it. These schools to be under a 
visitor, who is annually to chuse the boy, of best genius in the 
school, of those whose parents are too poor to give them further 
education, and to send him forward to one of the grammar schools, 
of which twenty are proposed to be erected in different parts of tlie 
country, for teaching Greek, Latin, geography, and the higher 
branches of numerical arithmetic. Of the boys thus sent in any 
one year, trial is to be made at the grammar schools one or two 
years, and the best genius of the whole selected, and continued 
six years, and the residue dismissed. By this means twenty of the 
best geniuses will be raked from the rubbish annually, and be 
instructed, at the pubhc expence, so far as the grammar schools go. 
At the end of six years instruction, one half are to be discontinued 
(from among whom the grammar schools will probably be supplied 
with future masters) ; and the other half, who are to be chosen for 
the superiority of their parts and disposition, are to be sent and 
continued three years in the study of such sciences as they shall 
chuse, at William and Mary college, the plan of which is proposed 
to be enlarged, . . . and extended to all the useful sciences. The 
ultimate result of the whole scheme of education would be the 
teaching all the children of the state reading, writing, and com- 
mon arithmetic : turning out ten annually of superior genius, well 
taught in Greek, Latin, geography, and the higher branches of 
arithmetic : turning out ten others annually, of still superior parts, 
who, to those branches of learning, shall have added such of tlie 
sciences as their genius shall have led them to : the furnishing to 
the wealthier part of the people convenient schools, at which their 
children may be educated, at their own expense. ... Of all the 
views of this law none is more important, none more legitimate, 



208 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

than that of rendering the people the safe, as they are the ultimate 
guardians of their own liberty. For this purpose the reading in 
the first stage, where they will receive their whole education, is 
proposed, as has been said, to be chiefly historical. History by 
apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the 
future." ^ 

Some of these ideas were embodied in the law of 1796. 
But that law left it to the justices of the several coun- 
ties to inaugurate schools, and the whole plan fell in 
consequence to the ground. If Jefferson's idea had been 
carried out, it would have opened up to every boy in Vir- 
ginia, no matter how poor, the possibility of securing a well- 
rounded, collegiate education.^ 

Although Jefferson's earlier scheme was not realized, the 
failure did not prevent him from accomplishing in his old 
age the establishment of a state university in Virginia. His 
ideas were widely influential; yet it would be difficult 
to point to any systematic application of them in a state 
establishment of education, unless it be in the early educa- 
tional system of Missouri. In 1839, Missouri provided by 
law for an imposing state system of schools, consisting of a 
central university, with colleges and academies in different 
parts of the commonwealth. But the scheme was too elab- 
orate and expensive, and was never carried out.^ 

There was however one piece of broad, creative legisla- 

1 Op. cit., pp. 243-249. The text of this bill is given in The writings qf 
Thomas Jefferson (edited by Paul Leicester Ford), II., pp. 220-229 ; and the 
bill for amending the constitution of William and Mary College follows, 
pp. 229-235. 

2 Cf. Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. In later 
legislation, the secondary schools were less fortunate than those of the higher 
and the lower grades. In 1817-18, "It was decided not to interfere with 
education except in the points where it could not be safely left to individual 
enterprise, viz., in the case of persons too poor to pay for it themselves and in 
that where the expense and magnitude of the subject defied individual enter- 
prise, as incase of a iiniversity. " Jefferson and Cabell correspondence, quoted 
by Blackmar, Federal and state aid, p. 174. 

3 Blackmar, op. cit., p. 286. Snow, Higher education in Missouri, ch. 1 : 
The University of the stale of Missouri, by Thomas Jefferson Lowry. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 209 

tion which was carried to some sort of completion in this time. 
The system of educational administration devised for the 
state of New York, shows unmistakably the working of French 
ideas, and has in its turn exercised a considerable influence. 

The University of the State of New York was established 
by legislative enactment in 1784, but did not assume its 
present form till a new organization was adopted in 1787. 
This university was not established as a local institution 
nor as a teaching body. It was intended to combine in one 
comprehensive organism all educational institutions having 
a corporate existence in the state. At the outset, the regents 
of the University and the trustees of Columbia College were 
one body, and it was proposed to make the college the head 
and mistress of the whole educational system. The chief 
opposition to this arrangement came from the outlying 
counties, which were just then becoming desirous of having 
academies established within their borders. 

One of the leading representatives of the college party 
was Alexander Hamilton. The foremost man in the acad- 
emy party was Ezra L'Hommedieu. The legislation of 
1787, commonly represented as embodying the individual 
plan of Alexander Hamilton, seems rather to have been the 
result of a friendly compromise between the opposing fac- 
tions. It separated the board of Eegents from the boards 
of trustees of Columbia College and of any other colleges or 
academies which might be established within the University. 
It seems to have been intended that the University should 
embrace the elementary schools of the state as well as in- 
stitutions of secondary and higher education. But the 
higher schools were provided first, and when a state system 
of elementary schools was established, at the prompting of 
the University, it was made a separate organization. The 
University then embraced and now embraces practically 
the whole provision for secondary and higher education in 
the state.i 

1 In Hildreth's History of the United States (III., pp. 386-387) appear the 
following statements with reference to this university : "Through the pro- 

14 



210 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

After assistance had been extended to the academies of 
the state for nearly thirty years, in a somewhat irregular 
fashion, through land grants and special legislative appro- 
priations in money, an act was passed in 1813 establishing 
a permanent fund, known as the Literature Fund. The 
income from this fund was, and is now, applied wholly to 
the support of secondary schools. The principal amounted 
by 1832 to nearly sixty thousand dollars. It has been 
supplemented from time to time by the income from 
lotteries (in 1801), by direct appropriations of state funds, 
and by various other means ; and has contributed greatly to 
the building up of academic education. 

It seems clear that the educational policy of several of 
our states was influenced by this great and striking piece of 
university making in New York, though the lines of con- 
nection are not always easy to trace. Dr. Sherwood makes 
a large claim when he says that, " Wherever the ' State 

curement of Hamilton, the New York Assembly presently passed an act 
erecting a board of twenty-one members, called ' Regents of the University of 
the State of New York,' ... a board afterward imitated in France, and 
which still continues to exist." Dr. Sherwood has shown that this legislation 
was not brought about by " the procurement of Hamilton " in any exclusive 
sense. The question whether Napoleon consciously imitated the state of New 
York when he came to establish the University of France is not an easy one. 
It would probably be safer to say that both Napoleon and the New York 
legislators were largely influenced and guided bj' the same French educational 
theorists, and notably by Diderot and Condorcet. Yet this may not tell the 
whole story. In the words of Dr. Sherwood, "The similarity which Napo- 
leon's University of 1808 bore to the New York University of 1787 may not 
be a mere coincidence when it is seen that Condorcet and Fourcroy were thus 
early aware of what was being done in America for education. And Talley- 
rand's intimacy with Hamilton on his visit to America may not have been 
without eff'ect upon the reconstruction of French education. If France" may 
claim to have given New York the ideal of a symmetrical state system of 
secular learning, New York may claim to have given to France the practical 
form of such a system, in its all-inclusive university corporation." University 
of the State of New York, p. 272. 

Of. Dr. Sherwood's later work on the same subject (Circ, Inf., no. 3, 
1900), in which he says, "The weight of evidence goes to show that before 
the formation of our national government in 1789, the source of the new ideas 
was French, rather than American ; while, after the outbreak of the French 
revolution in 1789, the current runs from America to France." Op. cit., p. 97. 



EARLY STATE SYSTE3fS 211 

university ' is governed by a body of regents who have no 
teaching functions and who are appointed by the political 
authority and are accountable to the people in their political 
capacity there is found the influence of this unique inven- 
tion, ' the University of the State of ISTew York.' " ^ The 
assertion may be true. It would be difficult either to prove 
or to disprove it. But there are a few instances in which 
it can hardly be doubted that that influence has been direct 
and powerful. 

Georgia followed hard after New York in the founding 
of the University of Georgia in 1785. The bill for this 
establishment provided that " All public schools, instituted, 
or to be supported by funds or public moneys in this state, 
shall be considered as parts or members of the University." 
Each county .was to have an academy, which was to be a 
part of the university. The crown of the whole system was 
to be a central college. The growth of this university 
has been mainly at the top. Franklin College, its vital 
centre, has been in existence since 1801. About this have 
been grouped several departments, as in ordinary univer- 
sity organization. The original plan of making the univer- 
sity a comprehensive system of state education, is still 
recalled by the existence, in different parts of the state, of 
five " branch colleges," which are of the nature of technical 
schools.^ 

It may be merely a coincidence that the scheme of organi- 
zation which brought all public schools, from the lowest to 
the highest, under a single administrative system, should 
have found favor in certain sections in which the French- 
speaking population was relatively large. The early history 
of Louisiana is rich in educational plans and experiments, 
which were projected on a liberal scale. The story of 
these undertakings has been well told by Dr. Fay. 

Soon after Louisiana came into the possession of the 
United States, a legislative act was passed " to institute an 

1 Circ. Inf., no. 3, 1900, p. 100. 

^ Jones, Education in Georgia, passim. 



212 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

university in the Territory of Orleans." The regents of this 
university were certain civil officers of the territory, and 
others elected by the legislature for life, as in the New 
York scheme. This body was directed to set up a " College 
of New Orleans," and one or more academies in each county 
within the territory ; and they were especially enjoined to 
establish as many academies as they might judge fit " for 
the instruction of the youth of the female sex in the 
English and French languages, and in such branches of 
polite literature and such liberal arts and accomplishments 
as may be suitable to the age and sex of the pupils." In 
addition to all this it was made the duty of the regents 
to provide public libraries in the several counties. Two 
annual lotteries were authorized for the support of this 
great undertaking. 

The provision for lotteries was soon revoked, and in its 
stead direct appropriations were made from the treasury of 
the state. Important beginnings were made by the regents 
in the establishment of the proposed college and secondary 
schools; but in 1821 this system of administration was 
abandoned, the board of regents was abolished, and the 
several institutions were continued under separate boards 
of control. In 1826 the college was given up and a central 
school and two primary schools were established in its 
place. Dr. Gayarr^'s reminiscences of the college, as re- 
ported by Dr. Fay, are full of interest. 

The proposed academies seem to have come into existence 
in twelve counties about the year 1811. They were sup- 
ported in part by state appropriations and in part by parish 
taxes. Tuition fees were imposed, but with a provision for 
"beneficiary students." In Louisiana, as in other portions 
of the country, the period from the thirties to the sixties 
of the nineteenth century was the time of a slow and 
painful working up toward the abolition of tuition fees and 
the establishment of complete systems of free public schools. 
This movement played a large part in the making of public 
education during that period. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 213 

In the twenties, Louisiana began subsidizing certain col- 
leges and academies, which are described as of a mixed 
type, " on the border line between the colleges proper and 
the academies." The College of Eapides, the College of 
Baton Eouge, and the Academy of Natchitoches, are exam- 
ples. A little later, in 1833, the practice of granting state 
subsidies to ordinary academies, secondary institutions in- 
corporated under self-perpetuating boards of trustees, was 
begun, the Montpellier Academy being the first to receive 
such encouragement. In all of these cases, the bounty of 
the state seems to have been granted on condition of the 
free schooling of a number of "indigent students." Such 
was the general movement of public secondary education 
in this state up to the year 1847, when the first free-school 
act was passed, soon followed by the establishment of the 
" State Seminary of Learning." ^ 

The present University of Michigan is the third of a 
series of institutions incorporated in the attempt to estab- 
lish a comprehensive system of public instruction. The 
first was the Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania, 
established by territorial enactment in 1817. This was 
certainly one of the most whimsical institutions of educa- 
tion ever devised by man. Yet it embodied an impos- 
ing and comprehensive scheme of education of the several 
grades from the lowest to the highest. " The president and 
didactors, or professors," were given power, among other 
things, " to establish colleges, academies, schools, libraries, 
musseums, athenoeums, botanic gardens, laboratories, and 
other useful literary and scientific institutions, consonant 
to the laws of the United States of America and of Michi- 
gan, and to appoint officers, instructors and instructri in, 
among and throughout the various counties, cities, towns, 
townships and other geographical divisions of Michigan." ^ 

1 Fay, History of education in Louisiana, chs. 2 and 3, pp. 27-79. 
3 Laws of the Territory, II., pp. 104-106. 

The territorial government of Michigan followed in its legislation the well- 
established precedents to be found in the statutes of the states then in exist- 



214 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

In fact, several primary schools were opened under the 
provisions of this act ; a classical school was organized in 
Detroit in 1818; and the "First College of Michigania" 
was established in the same city in 1817. 

This act was repealed in 1821 and in place of the Cathol- 
epistemiad there was set up a University of Michigan. 
This university was continued in the control of the little 
system of schools already established. A territorial law of 
1827 provided for common schools in close imitation of the 
original educational policy of Massachusetts. Every town- 
ship of fifty families was required to provide a schoolmaster 
to teach the elementary branches ; and every township of 
two hundred families, to provide a grammar schoolmaster, 
" well instructed in the Latin, French and English lan- 
guages," in addition to the master for an elementary school.^ 
But little was accomplished, however, till the admission of 
Michigan into the Union. The legislature of the new 
state passed an act in 1837 establishing the present state 
university. 

The statute for the establishment of this University of 
Michigan provided for the opening of "branches" in dif- 
ferent parts of the state. These branches were to serve 
as preparatory schools and as schools for the training of 
teachers. The regents, as soon as their board was organized, 
began establishing such schools ; and apparently there were 
nine in all begun before this policy was discontinued, about 
1849. These schools performed a good service in promoting 
secondary education, in calling forth the competition of 
towns where they were not established, and in sending 
well-prepared students to the university. Their mainte- 
nance was too great a tax on the resources of the struggling 
institution. Yet there were those who, when they were at 

ence. It was declared in the law establishing the Catholepistemiad that 
reference had been had to the laws of seven states, viz., Connecticut, Massa- 
chusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The 
New York idea, in all probability, had considerable influence with the framers 
of the measure. 

1 Lmvs of the Territory, II., pp. 472-477. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 215 

last given up, would much rather have seen the university 
itself closed and the schools continued. Several academies 
had been started and incorporated, under various names, in 
Michigan Territory, within the decade preceding the estab- 
lishment of the university by the newly admitted state. 
When the " branches " disappeared a new era had dawned, 
and the place of those preparatory schools was largely taken 
by the new "high schools."^ 

We find the ISTew York idea cropping out here and there 
in the legislative schemes of other states. There are traces 
of it in the educational history of Maryland, of Wisconsin, of 
California. Yet it appears for the most part in the form 
of mere suggestions or experiments, which came to little or 
nothing. The fact that for two or three generations the 
state of New York showed but little appreciation of the 
significance of its own system may account in some measure 
for the relatively small influence which that system exerted 
beyond the limits of the state. Then, too, the rising interest 
in elementary schools was turned aside into another admin- 
istrative channel, leaving the university out of the main 
current of public sentiment. The partial correction of these 
mistakes belongs to a later period than that now under 
consideration. 

Other state systems, more loosely constructed, and show- 
ing little or none of the French influence, were coming into 
existence. With the achievement of independence and the 
establishment of a more perfect union, there had arisen a 
new sense of educational responsibility. But this feeling 
found expression for the most part in administrative forms 
which did not sharply diverge from practices that had 
already grown familiar. The national government granted 
great areas from the public domain to the state govern- 
ments, to be used in the maintenance of schools. Having 
thus subsidized education in the states, it received its 
applause and withdrew from the stage. It did not under- 
take to exercise any sort of supervision over the manage- 

1 McLaughlin, Higher education in Michigan, passim. 



216 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

ment, by the states, of the school lands it had granted. The 
states, in their turn, incorporated and subsidized private 
educational undertakings, and made but little claim to 
supervision over the institutions they had aided. Local and 
individual initiative, generously encouraged by governments 
which asked few questions and imposed few conditions — 
such was the prevalent type of educational administration 
in this country in the earlier history of our national 
independence. 

The academy movement, under this system of loose con- 
trol, became as powerful in Massachusetts, in the face of the 
tradition and legislation which held up the town grammar 
schools, as in the newer states, where it had a clear field 
from the start. The high standard of education under 
public control, which had been set by the early colonists, 
was gradually lowered in the school law of this state. In 
1789, if the old law had been strictly complied with, two 
hundred and thirty of the Massachusetts towns, out of a 
total of two hundred and sixty-five, would have been 
obliged to support grammar schools. In that year a 
general school law was passed, in which the old require- 
ment of a grammar school in each town of one hundred 
families was changed to a requirement of one in each town 
of two hundred families. By this change one hundred and 
twenty of these two hundred and thirty towns were released 
from the obligation to maintain such schools.^ 

In 1824 another change was made, relieving all towns of 
less than five thousand inhabitants from the obhgation to 
support a school of secondary grade.^ There were at that 
time only seven towns in the state having the required pt»pu- 
lation of five thousand. The letting down of the require- 
ments with reference to grammar schools may have been 
partly due in 1789, and was doubtless due in large measure 
in 1824, to the upgrowth of the new academies, and of the 
ideas which they represented. 

1 Martin, Massachusetts public school system, p. 85. 

2 Laws of the Oommomvealth of Massachusetts, ch. 3, sec. 1. Approved 
February 18, 1824. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 217 

After endowing seven ^ individual academies with grants 
of public lands, Massachusetts adopted in 1797 a general 
policy with reference to such grants. This policy was em- 
bodied in the following declaration : 

"First, that no academy, (at least not already erected) ought to 
be encouraged by government, unless it have a neighborhood to 
support it of at least tbirty or forty thousand inhabitants, not accom- 
modated in any manner by any other academies, by any college or 
school answering the purpose of an academy ; secondly, that every 
such portion of the commonwealth ought to be considered as equally 
entitled to grants of State lands to these institutions, in aid of 
private donations ; and thirdly, that no State lands ought to be 
granted to any academy, but in aid of permanent funds, secured 
by towns and individual donors ; and therefore, previous to any 
such grant of State lands, evidence ought to be produced that such 
funds are legally secured, at least adequate to erect and repair the 
necessary buildings, to support the corporation, to procure and 
preserve such apparatus and books as may be necessary, and to pay 
a part of the salaries of the preceptors." 

The eight academies then in existence which had re- 
ceived no state endowment, and the four or five more that 
were necessary to make one for every 25,000 of the popula- 
tion, were then to receive each one-half township of unap- 
propriated lands in " the district of Maine." ^ With 
characteristic devotion to local self-government, Massachu- 
setts proposed no further public control of those schools 
which she had thus liberally endowed. By 1840 there were 
more than fifty incorporated academies in the state. 

The history of fifteen of the county grammar schools of 
Maryland has been traced.^ These schools having degener- 
ated as the revolutionary time approached, their funds were 
variously employed. " Of the fifteen foundations for secon- 

1 Four of these were in Maine, namely, those of Hallowell, Berwick, Frye- 
burg, and Machias. 

2 Am. Journ. Ed., XXX., pp. 58-59. 

' By Mr. Sollers. See Steiner, History of education in Maryland, 
ch. 2. 



218 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

dary education in colonial times, seven went to institutions 
of the same grade, four to institutions for higher educa- 
tion, one to an institution for elementary education, and 
two to the support of the poor." ^ Two of these county 
schools were united in Washington College in 1782 ;2 and 
St. John's College absorbed King William's School in 1785.^ 
St. John's College had been incorporated in 1784, and by 
the same act the legislature had established the University 
of Maryland, consisting of the two colleges, Washington on 
the Eastern Shore and St. John's on the Western Shore.* 
These colleges received substantial state aid, which was to 
have been perpetual. 

But here, as in New York, the colleges and academies were 
regarded as having opposing interests. In 1798^ a part of 
the state moneys was withdrawn from the annual grant to 
Washington College, and devoted to the support of five acad- 
emies. This was the beginning of a policy of state aid to 
secondary schools in the counties, which has been continued 
in Maryland down to the present time. In 1805. the dona- 
tions to the colleges were wholly discontinued. By 1812 
the ideal of one academy to each county was practically 
realized. At a later time, 1825 and thereafter, the interests 
of the primary schools were in turn pitted against those of 
the academies. The effort to break down the state support 
of the academies was however unsuccessful.^ 

Pennsylvania, having extended her financial aid in an ir- 
regular way for many years, in 1838 adopted a general sys- 
tem of state support for colleges and academies. When this 
liberal policy was discontinued, in 1843, there were nine 
colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, sixty- 
four academies, and thirty-seven female seminaries which 
were receiving such assistance. The total annual expen- 

1 Op. cit., p. 42. 

2 Laws of Maryland, April, 1782, ch. 8. 
8 Id., November, 1785, ch. 39. 

* Id., November, 1784, ch. 37. 

'' Id., November, 1798, ch. 107- (The act was passed January 20, 1799.) 

" 3teiner, op. cit., passim. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 219 

diture for this purpose rose from S7,990 in 1838 to 
$48,298.31 in 1843.1 

Some of the new states of the south and west have 
already been mentioned in this account. In the rest of 
these rising commonwealths, academic institutions came into 
being at an early day, under the impulse of private enter- 
prise variously encouraged by state and territorial govern- 
ments. No complete inventory of these undertakings will 
be attempted here. A few notable examples will give some 
indication of the public spirit which followed hard after the 
westward movement of our frontier, and show how educa- 
tional statesmanship made use of various means to conquer 
the hard conditions of that life. 

Tennessee, while yet a part of North Carolina, saw the 
establishment of Davidson Academy ^ at Nashville (incor- 
porated in 1785), which grew at length into the University 
of Nashville. This academy was endowed with a grant of 
240 acres of land in its immediate vicinity. In 1806 Con- 
gress granted certain lauds to the state of Tennessee for the 
encouragement of education. This grant included one hun- 
dred thousand acres for the use of two colleges, one hundred 
thousand acres for the use of academies, one in each county, 
and six hundred and forty acres in every district six miles 
square for the use of schools.^ The legislature of Tennessee 
took prompt measures to secure to the state the benefits of 
this bounty. One of the bills passed for this purpose is 
astonishing in its comprehensiveness, incorporating, by a 
single act, twenty-seven boards of trustees for as many 
academies in the several counties.^ 

Kentucky, too, began establishing academies before its 
admission into the Union, and in the matter of omnibus 

^ WiCKERSHAM, A Mstorij of education in Pennsylvania,, p. 369. 

2 Martin Academy in Washington County seems to have been incorporated 
at the same time. Am. Journ. Ed., XXIV., p. 320. The act does not appear 
in Scott's edition of the Laws of Tennessee. 

2 Blackmar, op. cit., pp. 262-263. Merriam, ILigher education in 
Tennessee, pp. 20-21. 

* Laws of the state of Tennessee, 1806, ch. 8, 



220 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

measures for the incorporation of institutions of learning it 
was even in advance of Tennessee. Early in the year 1798, 
the legislature of the state incorporated six academies and 
seminaries by a single act, and endowed each of these schools 
with a grant of six thousand acres of land. Later in the 
same year nineteen more academies were similarly chartered 
and endowed. By the year 1820, forty-seven county acade- 
mies had been established in the state, and each of them 
had received a grant of from six thousand to twelve thou- 
sand acres of land. By that time the movement had run 
its course, the county academies were coming into disfavor, 
and public educational measures were turning aside into 
other channels.^ 

The constitution of the state of Indiana adopted in 1816 
contained the far-sighted provision that " it shall be the duty 
of the general assembly, as soon as circumstances will per- 
mit, to provide by law for a general system of education, 
ascending in regular gradation from township schools to a 
State University wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally 
open to all." In 1818 the governor of the state was em- 
powered by law to appoint a " seminary trustee " for each 
county. In 1820 a " state seminary " was chartered at 
Bloomington. Out of this state seminary has grown the 
present State University of Indiana. No county seminary 
was established until 1825, when one was opened at Liberty 
in Union County. A general law of the year 1831 provided 
for the establishment of a seminary in each county. In all, 
twenty-four of these county seminaries were incorporated, 
between the years 1825 and 1843. Dr. Woodburn says 
of them : 

"These old seminaries gradually disappeared after the passage of 
the first school law under the new Constitution. The free public 
high schools have succeeded to their places. In their day they 
served an excellent, we may even say indispensable, purpose. 

1 Lewis, Higher education in Kentucky, ch. 2. Blackmar, op. cit., p. 
258. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 221 

They raised the educational standard of the State; they educated 
teachers, they brought the advantages of education within reach of 
a majority of the people, and in demonstrating the great benefits 
therefrom they made possible the movement for universal schools. 
They were the main reliance for the education of the people for a 
quarter of a century. They are to be assigned a respectable place 
in the story of Indiana schools, and their influence is yet felt in 
the educational forces of the State, not only in the work of a few 
of their number which still survive, but in the impressions left by 
the many which have long since suspended their operation." ^ 

At the same time that these county seminaries were build- 
ing, various tov^ns and cities and religious denominations 
were securing charters for other " seminaries " and " acade- 
mies." No less than thirty-seven such institutions were 
incorporated in the state up to and including the year 1850. 

Secondary education in Illinois seems to have begun with 
the admission of the territory to statehood. The first legis- 
lature, in 1819, incorporated Madison Academy at Edwards- 
ville and Washington Academy at Carlyle. Mr. Baker, the 
father of General Baker of Oregon, who was killed at Ball's 
Bluff, opened an academy in Belleville about 1825. The 
legislature of 1826-27 incorporated an academy in Monroe,^ 
endowed it with school lands, and added the injunction that 
only useful knowledge is to be taught. The next and much 
more significant movement in secondary education in this 
state was in connection with the establishment of the early 
colleges. Although favorable to academies, the early Illinois 
legislatures were seemingly fearful of colleges. The dread 
of ecclesiastical influence seems to have had much to do 
with their reluctance to grant college charters.^ Rock 

1 WoODBUEN, Higher education in Indiana, pp. 46-47. 

2 Presumably Monroe County. I follow here the account by Dr. Samuel 
WiLLAKD, published in the Fifteenth hiennial report of the. Superintendent of 
Public Instruction of the State of Illinois [1882-1884]. 

' " The prejudices that defeated it [the proposed charter for Illinois College, 
in 1830] were so absurd that we can hardly realize the potent influence they 
then possessed. The most prominent argument was the alleged discovery that 
Presbyterians were planning to gain undue influence in our politics, and were 



222 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Spring Seminary, containing the germ of Shurtleff College, 
was established in 1827, having grown from a school opened 
three years earlier. Illinois College started with a prepara- 
tory school in 1830 ^ and organized a college class in 1831, 
with the Kev. Edward Beecher as president. Instruction 
began in the McKendreean College (founded at the sugges- 
tion of Peter Cartwright) in 1828 ; though the first college 
class was not graduated till 1841. At the same time an 
effort was making to establish a college of the Christian 
church at Jonesboro. After encountering much difficulty, 
these four colleges, by a united effort, secured incorporation 
from the legislature in a single act passed in 1835. From 
that time the colleges greatly encouraged and promoted the 
development of secondary schools in the state. The Jack- 
sonville Female Academy was incorporated in 1834. Before 
1840, thirty additional academies had been incorporated, 
under various names, including five schools for girls. 

The legislature of 1840-41, in granting charters to several 
academies, gave to three of them the privilege of receiving 
public money on the presentation of proper schedules, such 
as were required of the common schools. This practice 
does not seem, however, to have become common. Within 
the following decade several strong secondary schools were 
established in. the state ; and the preparatory departments 
of colleges, commonly bearing the name academy, helped to 
fix the standards of instruction in such institutions. 

In Iowa, numerous academies and seminaries were incor- 
porated during the territorial period, but the most of them 
seem to have had an existence on paper only. One, how- 
proposing to control the government of the State in the interest of Presby- 
terianisni." Julian M. Sturtevant, An aAitoMogra'phy (New York, 1896), 
p. 178. 

1 " Three or four of the pupils had already made some progress in the ac- 
quisition of the Latin language and were looking forward to a collegiate edu- 
cation and to the Christian ministry. One or two more manifested a desire 
to commence classical study. The rest wished to pursue rudimentary 
branches only. . . . There was then no school in the State at which a 
youth could have prepared for college." Id., pp. 166-167. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 223 

ever, grew into a fairly strong institution and has continued 
to the present time. This is the Denmark Academy, estab- 
lished in 1843. It rose on the ruins of a chimerical scheme 
for a " Philandrian College," and was for a long time the 
only incorporated academy in lowa.^ The constitution 
adopted when the state was admitted into the Union, in 
1846, provided for a university, " with such branches as the 
public convenience may hereafter demand." Two such 
branches were authorized in 1849, one at Fairfield and the 
other at Dubuque ; but the constitution adopted in 1857 
discontinued all such branches.^ 

At about this time secondary education was getting under 
way in Florida. We are told that in 1840 there were in the 
territory eighteen academies and grammar schools. The 
congressional land grant for a " seminary of learning," was 
not employed, when Florida was admitted -as a state, for the 
establishment of a state university ; but instead it was pro- 
vided by legislative action in 1851 that 

"Two seminaries of learning shall be established, one upon the 
east, the other upon the west side of the Suwanee River, the first 
purpose of which shall be the instruction of persons, both male and 
female, in the art of teaching all the various branches that pertain 
to a good common school education ; and next, to give instruction 
in the mechanic arts, in husbandry, and agricultural chemistry, in 
the fundamental laws, and in what regards the rights and duties of 
citizenship." 

These two schools, the East Florida Seminary, located 
at Gainesville, and the West Florida Seminary, located 
at Tallahassee, in addition to other services, have been 
especially useful in promoting secondary education in the 
state.^ 

The United States Bureau of Education was not in exist- 

1 Parker, Higher education in loiva, pp. 124-125. 

2 Blackmar, op. cit., pp. 290-292. "These branches, however, were to 
be, practically, two independent State universities." Op. cit., p. 77. 

^ Bush, History of education in Florida, passim. 



224 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

' ence in the great academy age — the earlier half of the 
nineteenth century — and we have far to seek for any 
statistical account of American educational institutions dur- 
ing that period. The attempt was made by Mr. B. B. Ed- 
wards, the secretary of the American Education Society, to 
gather full information with respect to American schools 
and colleges. This attempt was only partially successful ; 
but the report of his findings, which Mr. Edwards pre- 
sented ^ is interesting and valuable. A brief summary of 
some portions of this report will help us to a better under- 
standing of the extent of our provision for secondary edu- 
cation in the early days of the " Educational Awakening." 
The report is given by states : 

Maine. — Has thirty-two academies and similar institu- 
tions. Total value of their property and endowment, about 
$250,000. Number of students, about 1,200. 

New Hampshire. — Thirty " academies and other public 
schools." 

Vei^mont. — About thirty-five academies and high schools, 
but not all in actual operation. 

Massachusetts. — Eighty-three academies and private sec- 
ondary schools of various sorts, twenty-one of which have 
received a land endowment from the state. 

Rhode Island. — One boarding school and one " English 
and classical seminary " are mentioned. 

Connecticut. — Fourteen schools of the academy grade. 

New York. — Fifty-seven academies, having buildings and 
endowments amounting in value to S400,000, and receiving 
from the state $10,000 annually. 

Neio Jersey. — Seven schools which might be designated 
as academies are mentioned, one of which has been 
discontinued. 

Pennsylvania. — A list of ninety-two " academies and 
high schools" is given, with the date of incorporation of 
each of them. The endowments of nearly all are reported. 

1 Article, Ediication and literary institutions, in American Quarterly Reg- 
ister, v., pp. 273-333, May, 1833. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 225 

Some have land endowments, the value of which is not 
given. The endowments reported at a money valuation 
range in amount from $500 to $10,000.1 

Delaware. — One academy, " lately established." 

Maryland. — " There are several academies, which receive 
$800 a year from the state treasury." 

Virginia. — About fifty-five academies. 

Nortli. Carolina. — Number of academies not ascertained. 

Soutlh Carolina. — A list is given of thirty-two academies 
which were in existence in 1826. 

Georgia. — Four secondary schools are mentioned. 

Kentucky. — Twelve secondary schools are mentioned. 
The literary fund of Kentucky is reported as amounting 
to $140,917.44. 

Ohio. — " We are not aware that there are any flourishing 
incorporated acadejuies in the State." 

It is clear that this is very far from a complete account 
of the establishments for secondary education in the early 
thirties. But it shows at least how our provision for sec- 
ondary education appeared at that time to one who was in 
a better position than the most of his contemporaries to 
know what was going on — at least so far as the northern 
country, east and west, was concerned. 

The account of the colleges is more nearly complete than 
that of the lower schools. In an earlier number of the 
same volume is given a comparison of college attendance in 
the United States with that in various European countries. 
It is estimated that there were 3,475 "academical" students 
in American colleges, and 2,751 in the professional schools. 
In this whole country, there was one person pursuing the 
higher studies to every 2,078 of the population ; in Europe, 
one to every 2,285 of the population. The proportion was 
highest in Scotland (one to every 683) : and after that in 
Massachusetts (one to every 792) ; Baden (one to every 
816) ; and Connecticut (one to every 960). These were the 

1 Here as in some of the other states, endowments are reported in round 
numbers, which look suspiciously like mere estimates or guesses. 

15 



226 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

only states or countries having a larger proportion than 
one to 1,000.1 

Commenting on the educational situation in this country, 
the article first referred to declared that, " There is much 
in the state of education in this country, which is encour- 
aging to the philanthropist and scholar. Its great object 
seems to be more and more distinctly apprehended. The 
harmonious cultivation of all the powers which belong to 
man, is regarded as of paramount importance." Here we 
see the abstract psychological view of education, which was 
closely bound up with the Pestalozzian movement, already 
coming to the front in this country. 

The growing recognition of the Bible as a text-book in 
school instruction is referred to. This is significant as 
showing how far the schools had swung away from the prac- 
tice of colonial times, when the Bible was a text-book in 
elementary schools almost as a matter of course. Of similar 
import is the remark that within five years there had been a 
noticeable gain in the study of the classics. One other note 
is significant in a different way : " We have reason to 
believe that greater attention is paid to individual minds at 
our public institutions. The indiscriminate instruction of 
a class has long been a fatal error. The instructors have 
not studied the peculiar conformation — the excellencies 
and defects of particular minds. The sound advice of 
Mr. Jardine, the excellent Glasgow professor, has produced, 
we think, considerable effect in this country." '^ In this we 
hear what has a familiar sound to our more modern ears. 
But a consideration of the academies, as they were in their 
actual working, must be reserved for the chapters next 
following this, 

NOTE 

The study of successive phases of iufluence of foreign countries upon our 
own is a fascinating one. It can hardly be doubted that much more will 
be brought to light than has jet been shown respecting French influence 

1 Op. cit., pp. 21-24. 2 Op. ciL, pp. 273-274. 



EARLY STATE SYSTEMS 227 

in American education during the period next following the Revolutionary 
War. The studies of Professor Herbert B. Adams and Dr. Sherwood 
in this field are full of interest. Attention should be called to a very sug- 
gestive sketch by Dr. Hinsdale, entitled Notes on the history of foreign 
influence upon education in the United States. In Rept. Comr. Ed., 1897-98, 
I., pp. 591-629. 

After all is said and done in this field of inquiry, the impression remains 
that there was in this period a tremendous moving of the spirit of education 
in ways that may fairly be called American, as distinguished from any 
pattern set by European nations. 



CHAPTEE XI 

' THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 

The academy was the institution for secondary education 
wrought out by the American people in the first half century 
of their independence, and it was the dominant institution 
of its class for at least another half century. It appeared 
under different names and in different forms, and its charac- 
ter changed as time went on. In its varied developments, 
it contributed largely to the making of American civilization. 
The nature of this contribution and of the institution which 
made it must now be considered a little more particularly. 

To begin with, some differences between the academy and 
the grammar school, and the social conditions out of which 
they respectively arose, should be mentioned. The early 
grammar-school-and-college system, as was pointed out, be- 
longed to a society in which there was a conscious cleavage 
between higher and lower classes. In the revolutionary 
period there was a strong tendency toward democracy. Yet 
the democracy with which the present generation has been 
familiar had not yet come into being. A most important 
turning-point was passed when the Eepublican party came 
into power, with Thomas Jefferson in the presidential chair. 
The rise of the west within the twenty years next following, 
made for a great advance in democratic spirit. And this 
was a time when academies were springing up everywhere. 

The academy age was, in fact, the age of transition from 
the partially stratified colonial society to modern democracy. 
Perhaps the most marked feature of that transition was the 
growing importance of a strong middle class. The rise of 
the academies was closely connected with the rise of this 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 229 

middle class. The academies were by no means exclusively 
middle-class schools at the start, and they became something 
very different from that at a later period. But it is one of 
their glories that they were in the earlier days so bound up 
with the higher interests of the common people. 

There was in the academies a growing sense of the value 
of education for its own sake, or rather for its effect in the 
heightening of sheer human worth. To be sure the colonial 
colleges had not been professional schools in the modern 
sense ; but they were valued chiefly because they gave such 
an education as a member of one of the learned professions 
required. In this way the professional spirit was strong in 
them, apparently stronger than the spirit of " culture," to 
use the word in a modern sense. But the idea of liberal 
culture took strong hold of the academies ; and it would, 
perhaps, be fair to call it the dominant note of both acad- 
emy and college education in the nineteenth century. 

There were many reasons for this change of attitude. It 
may have been influenced in some measure by Eousseau. 
This influence, however, was indirect for the most part, 
though the ^mile was read somewhat on this side of the 
water.i Then, our revolutionary period was alive with the 
doctrine of the rights of man and with the assertion of 
human freedom. The minds of men were receptive not only 
to the ideas of revolutionary France, but also to those ancient 
conceptions of the rights and duties of freemen which the 
study of Latin and Greek had made familiar. So this ideal 
of liberal culture which made its" way into the academies 
and was spread abroad by them, was a blending of many 
elements, all fused in a very religious enthusiasm. It gave 
us a noble view of the worth of education, a view which 
tended doubtless to abstraction, but which was very high 
and generous. It had consequences, too, of a thoroughly 
practical sort. 

^ There had been preparation here for some of the ideas of Kousseau and 
his school. The Quaker doctrine of a continuous revelation was the religious 
counterpart and forerunner of the "return to nature." 



230 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The old grammar schools had, many of them, been erected 
to supply the educational need of single communities. An 
academy, on the other hand, was not commonly regarded as 
a merely local institution. It served a widely scattered 
constituency. The Phillips academies came, in fact, to be 
in a sense national, like the great public schools of England. 

We have seen that the close corporation was the charac- 
teristic type of academy organization, replacing those various 
forms of control which were found in the grammar schools. 
Where there was a deviation from this type, it was not in 
the direction of management by some public corporation, as 
in the grammar schools, but rather in the direction of eccle- 
siastical control. The members of the managing board of 
an academy were commonly drawn from several localities, 
and these sometimes remote from one another. 

The earlier academies were not bound up with the college 
system in the same way as the grammar schools : they were 
not primarily " fitting schools." They were, instead, insti- 
tutions of an independent sort, taking pupils who had 
already acquired the elements of an English education, and 
carrying them forward to some, rather indefinite, rounding- 
out of their studies. 

The constitutions of the Philadelphia academy and of the 
two schools founded by the Phillips family, set forth the 
purposes of those several institutions, but make no such 
mention of preparation for college as is contained in the 
New England laws providing for grammar schools, or in 
official documents relating to the grammar schools of Mary- 
land and Virginia. We even find the interests of the acad- 
emies sometimes set over against those of the colleges, as 
in New York and Maryland, the two institutions being re- 
garded as belonging to diverse educational systems. The 
colleges were for the higher, and particularly the profes- 
sional, classes. The academies were the colleges of the 
people. So the matter stood in the controversies of the 
time. 

On the other hand, it should be noted that, even in the 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 231 

earlier academies, the classical studies were arranged with 
reference to college admission requirements, for the con- 
venience of such students as might go on to some higher 
institution. The tradition of the grammar schools, too, made '. 
itself felt in the new institutions. In fact, the classical side \ 
of the academies was virtually the old grammar school con- 
tinued in a new setting. In the better schools the college 
preparatory course was the backbone of the whole system 
of instruction. While the academies were much more than 
fitting schools, it was the admission requirements of the 
colleges, more than anything else, that determined their 
standards of scholarship. ^ 

Up to the year 1800, Latin, Greek, and arithmetic were 
the only subjects required for admission to the leading 
American colleges.^ The requirements in the classics were 
not definitely marked out in the eighteenth century, except 
at the college in New York. King's College, as early as 
1755, had made the quantitative requirement of three of 
Tully's orations, the first three books of the ^neid, the 
first ten chapters of St. John's gospel, and all of the rules 
of Clarke's Introduction. Columbia College, thirty years 
later, extended this requirement to include the four orations 
against Catiline, the first four books of the ..-Eneid, and 
apparently the whole of Caesar's Gallic War and all four of 
the gospels. 

Between the year 1800 and the breaking out of the Civil 
War, five new subjects found a place in the requirements 
for admission to the regular college course. These are 
given as follows, with the dates of their first appearance : 
Geography, 1807 ; English grammar, 1819 ; algebra, 1820 ; 

^ Mr. Edwin C. Broome has prepared as his doctor thesis at Columbia 
University, an extended study of the history of requirements for admission to 
American colleges. He has kindly placed the results of his inquiry at ray 
disposal, and I have made considerable use of his manuscript entitled An 
historical and critical discussion of college admission require^nents, particu- 
larly of that portion which relates to the nineteenth century. 

'■^ The ambiguous term, "grammar," appears iu the Williams College re- 
quirements for 1795. 



232 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

geometry, 1844; ancient history, 1847. All of these sub- 
jects were first required by Harvard College, with the excep- 
tion of English grammar, in which Princeton took the lead ; 
but each of the new requirements named spread gradually 
to other institutions.^ 

Academy students who were preparing for college pursued 
the studies, now slowly increasing in number and in definite- 
ness, which their several colleges prescribed. But the not- 
able thing about the academies, as distinguished from the 
grammar schools, was that they went on adding subjects to 
this programme at their own sweet will, wholly regardless of 
what the colleges were doing. Sometimes they brought 
subjects down from the college course ; sometimes they took 
subjects which the most of the colleges did not touch. Per- 
haps the most significant of these additions were studies in 
the English language, in history, and in certain branches of 
natural science. Occasionally, too, we find mention of the 
modern foreign languages. And books were studied which 
treated of ethics and psychology in some of their practical 
aspects. Watts' Improvement of the mind was one of these. 

The first stage in the introduction of natural science into 
the programme of studies is seen in the laying of strong em- 
phasis on mathematics, especially on algebra and geometry. 
Closely connected with these subjects was the study of 
astronomy. It is easy to see the relation between this 
movement and that rising interest in natural phenomena 
which had found expression in the academies of England. 
Here as there astronomy was received with favor because of 
the new stimulus which it gave to the sense of religious 
awe. The work of Herschel was now added to that of 
Newton. The wonder of the heavens was increased, and the 
expectation of new discoveries lent further interest to the 
science. It is, indeed, a distinct loss to our secondary educa- 
tion that tliis earlier study of astronomy is now so largely 
discontinued. 

" Natural philosophy " followed close upon astronomy, 

1 Dr. Bkoome's MS. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 233 

or not infrequently absorbed astronomy, which then made 
one of the chief divisions of the more comprehensive sub- 
ject. The several formal divisions of physics were also in- 
cluded in this natural philosophy. Electricity and magnet- 
ism were already fascinating studies. A patriotic as well 
as scientific interest attached to the story of Franklin's 
experiments. Even before the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, some schools had "philosophical" apparatus for use 
by the instructor in the presence of the class. At odd times, 
students as well as teachers performed experiments with 
such apparatus ; but the era of regular school laboratories 
was still far off. 

Chemistry was taught along with natural philosophy, and 
by similar methods. Geography, too, began to be empha- 
sized. This subject presents a good example of the influence 
of text-books. With the publication of Morse's geography, 
in 1784, it became an easy matter to manage a course of 
geographical study, such as it was. There were many in- 
teresting things in the text-book, and the subject was intrin- 
sically attractive, besides offering a great store of useful 
information. So geography soon made headway in the 
schools, and later found a place in college admission re- 
quirements. 

In all of the studies of this group, the speculative and 
liberal interest ran alongside of the consideration of prac- 
tical use — sometimes the one ahead, and then again 
the other. To the general public, such subjects doubtless 
appealed chiefly on account of some sort of usefulness. Their 
practical value was sometimes emphasized by the addition 
of technical instruction in surveying and navigation, after 
the example of a few of the colonial schools. 

The study of the English language and literature in the 
academies, as recommended by Defoe, and still more as rec- 
ommended by Franklin, seems to have been intended to 
fill a place somewhat like that which English occupies in 
our best secondary schools at the present time. The master- 
pieces of English prose and poetry were to be studied criti- 



234 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

cally, with a view to a just appreciation of their beauties as 
well as of their defects. Practice in composition under 
intelligent supervision was to form the students' English 
style. By oral reading and declamation they were to be 
trained to an effective public presentation of worthy senti- 
ments. 

There were many hindrances in the way of the attain- 
ment of this ideal — such hindrances as we can hardly 
realize in our day. Tradition, apparatus, and atmosphere 
were all lacking, and only a few great teachers can get on 
without such aids. Franklin's letter to the trustees of the 
College of Philadelphia, with reference to the depression of 
the English school, is a pathetic setting-forth of these diffi- 
culties. It seems likely that the better teachers of English 
branches in our early academies tried faithfully to give their 
pupils some real introduction to English literature, but the 
accounts of their work are scrappy and obscure. 

Lindley Murray's grammar, published in 1795, gave the 
first definite direction to this department of study. ^ In the 
study of English grammar a means was found of giving 
form to the chaotic desire to study the vernacular. The 
tradition of Latin grammar easily passed over into this 
branch of study. The school spirit of the age could compre- 
hend its significance. In the hands of sk;lful teachers it 
could be made intensely interesting to many students, and 
especially to those whose belated opportunities brought 
them to the academies near the end of their teens, with 

1 Or, to state the case more fully, the rising interest in the English language 
and literature resulted in the publication of several works on English gram- 
mar, the most influential of which was Lindley Murray's ; and these publica- 
tions reacted upon the interest which had called them forth. As early as 
1780, William Woodbridge heard a class of young ladies parsing English in a 
Philadelphia school. Am. Journ. Ed., XXVII., p. 273. 

An interesting series of articles on instruction and text-books in English gram- 
mar appeared in volume XII. of the Common School Journal (Boston, 1850). 
The writer declared that, "It is hardly sixty years since English grammar 
was taught in any New England school, though "previously to that time, 
Lowth's Grammar was taught at Harvard College, and, perhaps, at others." 
Loc. cit., p. 5. 



TSE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 235 

minds eager for intellectual exercise, which their childhood 
had largely missed. English grammar soon became one of 
the standard subjects of academy instruction ; and a large 
part of the fluid and formless aspiration after the study of 
English was run into the grammatical mould. 

This, however, does not tell the whole story. Certain 
English masterpieces, Paradise lost, the Essay on man, and 
Cowper's Ta,sk, and along with these, Pollock's Course of 
time, were used for parsing exercises, and sometimes fur- 
nished at the same time materials for exercises in -reading. 
While this practice was open to grave objections, it cannot 
be denied that it led some students to an appreciation of 
good literature. At its best, it was much better than some 
present-day instruction in Vergil and Cicero. Logic and 
rhetoric were sometimes brought over from the ancient 
trivium and made to round out the English side of the 
academy programme. There was great interest, too, during 
this period, in the practice of declamation. But one of the 
most noteworthy lines of English instruction in the early 
academies was provided by the new school reading books. 
Interest in English literature combined with moral aspira- 
tion and with patriotic devotion to everything American, in 
determining the content of our earliest works of this class. 

It is interesting to note the sense of pride and confidence 
in America and Americanism which flamed up when the in- 
dependence of the colonies was secured and the national 
constitution was established. The rapid growth of .the 
country to westward added fuel to this sentiment. There 
was in it a great deal of crude and ignorant bumptiousness, 
such as Dickens saw and made the whole world see. But 
there was in it, too, a passionate devotion to the ideal of 
free government, and an abundance of hero-worship. Wash- 
ington was a demigod and lived among the clouds, even 
before he became president. We may gather as much from 
the bitter comment of his enemies. Putnam and Wayne 
and La Fayette and Marion and Light Horse Harry were 
heroes. The Declaration of Independence was a sacred 



236 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

document, and the Signers were held in reverence not 
wholly unlike that with which the early church regarded 
the twelve apostles. 

It is good for youth to have generous enthusiasms, and 
this exuberant Americanism was one of the most pervasive 
inJEluences at work in the old academies. In some measure 
it took the place of the religious instruction of the old gram- 
mar schools, at the same time that the reading book was 
taking the place of the Psalter and Testament. 

Noah Webster's American selection or "Third Part" 
(1785) was crowded with examples of American eloquence. 
Caleb Bingham's American preceptor (1794) and Columbian 
orator (1797) followed this lead, though containing a little 
more of eighteenth-century English literature. Lindley 
Murray's series of readers, and particularly his Sequel (1801) 
drew largely upon Milton and the essayists and poets of the 
eighteenth century. The book last named was " designed 
to improve the highest class of learners, to establish a taste 
for just and accurate composition and to promote the inter- 
ests of piety and virtue." ^ 

In addition to the patriotic selections of the reading books 
there was more definite instruction in the history of the 
United States, supplemented by some account of other 
nations. The classical course seems generally to have 
offered no instruction in history, except in the annals of 
Greece and.Eome. But this has been the case even in our 
high schools, down to a recent period. If the history 
taught in the academies was hardly more than an appendage 
of literary studies, it will be remembered that until well on 
into the nineteenth century historians were commonly 
ranked as contributors to belles-lettres. 

The course of study in the earlier schools was not clearly 
formulated. That part which looked to preparation for 
college was, however, fairly well defined in the tradition 

1 See Reeder, Historical development of school readers, pp. 36-41. There 
is an interesting note by Mr. Augustus C. Buell on the influence of Sanders' 
old Fifth Reader, in the Saturday Review of the New York Times for April 
5, 1902, p. 228. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 237 

received from the grammar schools. The arrangement of 
the newer studies was open to free experiment. It seems to 
have been a common practice to form classes during the 
winter months in such subjects as might be of especial 
interest to the young farmers who came into the school 
when the fall work was over, and must leave when the 
spring ploughing began. The separation of the English 
from the classical course appears at a very early day. 

The history of the Phillips Exeter curriculum is instruc- 
tive. In the year 1808, the number of classes in that acad- 
emy was reduced, and a uniform system of classification 
established. At this time the requirements for admission 
to the English course were defined, and probably somewhat 
advanced. Ten years later the admission requirements were 
made more rigid, and the separation of the English from the 
classical department was sharpened. The full course of 
study for the year 1818 is given as follows : ^ 

Classical Department. 

For the First Year : 

Adam's Latin Grammar ; Liber Primus, or a similar work ; Viri- 
Eomani, or Caesar's Commentaries ; Latin Prosody ; Exercises in 
Reading and making Latin ; Ancient and Modern Geography ; 
Virgil and Arithmetic. 

For the Second Year : 

Virgil ; Arithmetic and Exercises in Reading and making Latin, 
continued ; Valpey's Greek Grammar ; Roman History ; Cicero's 
Select Orations ; Delectus ; Dalzel's Collectanea Graeca Minora ; 
Greek Testament ; English Grammar and Declamation. 

For the Third Year : 

The same Latin and Greek authors in revision ; English Gram- 
mar and Declamation continued ; Sallust ; Algebra ; Exercises in 
Latin and English translations, and Composition. 

1 Bell, op. cit., pp. 93-94. 



238 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

For the Advanced Class : 

Collectanea Graeca Majora ; Q. Horatius Flacciis ; Titus Livius ; 
Parts of Terence's Comedies ; Excerpta Latina, or such Latin and 
Greek authors as may best comport with the student's future des- 
tination ; Algebra ; Geometry ; Elements of Ancient History ; 
Adam's Roman Antiquities, etc. 

English Department. 

For admission into this department the candidate must be at 
least twelve years of age, and must have been well instructed in 
Reading and Spelling ; familiarly acquainted with Arithmetic, 
through Simple Proportion with the exception of Fractions, with 
Murray's English Grammar through Syntax, and must be able to 
parse simple English sentences. 

The following is the course of instruction and study in the Eng- 
lish Department, which with special exceptions, will comprise 
three years. 

For the First Year : 

English Grammar including exercises in Reading, in Parsing, and 
Analyzing, in the correction of bad English ; Punctuation and 
Prosody ; Arithmetic ; Geography, and Algebra through Simple 
Equations. 

For the Second Tear : 

English Grammar continued ; Geometry ; Plane Trigonometry 
and its application to heights and distances ; mensuration of Sup. 
and Sol. ; Elements of Ancient History; Logic; Rhetoric; Eng- 
lish Composition ; Declamation and exercises of the Forensic 
kind. 

For the Third Year : 

Surveying ; Narigation ; Elements of Chemistry and Natural 
Philosophy, with experiments ; Elements of Modern History, 
particularly of the United States ; Moral and Political Philosophy, 
with English Composition, Forensics, and Declamation continued. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 239 

The religious spirit was still strong in the academies, but 
it was passing through a transformation, A marked charac- 
teristic of this transition was the appearance of the idea of 
non-sectarian religious instruction. This conception, to- 
gether with its practical application, is a notable feature in 
the history of these schools. 

Some of the academies, to be sure, were conducted on 
denominational lines and under ecclesiastical control. But the 
extreme subdivision of sectarian bodies made'it difficult to se- 
cure adequate support for many such institutions. The 
friends of learning saw that schools could be established and 
properly maintained only by getting those of divergent reli- 
gious beliefs to pull together, making education a common 
cause. There was, moreover, a growing dissatisfaction with 
the prevalent sectarian strife. One indication of this senti- 
ment is seen in the establishment of the church of the Dis- 
ciples (about 1827), under the leadership of Alexander 
Campbell, for the avowed purpose of bringing about a union 
of all Christians in an organization based upon the Bible 
alone, and having no creed nor liturgy. The Unitarian 
movement, too, which was destined to exercise so powerful 
an influence upon American education, was giving expression 
to a mighty protest against the dominance of religious forms 
and creeds. 

There was already a limited acceptance of the principle 
that those doctrines on which the various sects had divided 
should be excluded from the schools. In a discourse at the 
dedication of the academy at Milton, in 1807, the Eev. 
Thomas Thacher went so far as to say, " A Preceptor has no 
right to inculcate his peculiar sentiments in theology on the 
mind of the pupil." Others, who might not have agreed 
with the general principle thus expressed, would at least 
maintain that the schools would do better to touch on only 
those broad aspects of religious belief upon which their con- 
stituents were practically agreed ; but would have these 
presented with all fulness and earnestness. 

So the academies were generally pervaded by a religious 



240 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

spirit, which was often deep and intense ; but which was 
non-ecclesiastical, in that it kept clear of those doctrines 
which are peculiar to any single church. In this way they 
bridged over the gulf which separates the ecclesiasticism of 
the earlier grammar schools from the secularism of modern 
public-school systems. 

The grammar schools had been for the most part one- 
teacher schools, and when the teacher was assisted by an 
usher, there was no distribution of the subjects of instruc- 
tion between the two. The principal teacher still taught 
everything, and the usher was merely a helper, who taught 
the beginners, it might be, or did whatever task was assigned 
to him. This plan was departed from when a separate 
teacher was appointed to give instruction in writing and the 
mathematical branches. Such an arrangement foreshadowed 
the academy system. 

In the academies the prevalent form of organization was 
that in which the work of instruction was divided among 
two or more teachers, and the distribution made according 
to subjects. A partial variant from this type is seen in 
some early co-educational schools, where the " preceptor " 
taught the boys, while the " preceptress " taught the girls 
in another room. But even in these cases, boys and girls 
were sometimes brought together for instruction in some 
subject in which either the one or the other of the teachers 
was especially proficient. 

At the Leicester (Massachusetts) Academy provision was 
made at the outset for a " Preceptor in the Greek and Latin 
languages " and a " Teacher of English, w^riting, arithmetic, 
etc." These two teachers were practically independent of 
each other. In 1821, however, the supervision of both 
departments was definitely committed to the preceptor of 
the Latin School, and three years later a horizontal division 
was adopted, into an upper and a lower school.^ 

It is not to be supposed that the transition from the age 
of the grammar school to the academy age could be made 
^ Washburn, H Into ry of Leicester Academy, pp. 19-20, 30. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 241 

without some conflict between their characteristic types of 
education. There were those in Massachusetts who lamented 
the passing of schools of the earlier type. As far back as 
1795, Samuel Adams, in his inaugural address as governor 
of Massachusetts, said : 

" It is with satisfaction that I have observed the patriotic exer- 
tions of worthy citizens to estabKsh academies in various parts of 
the Commonwealth. It discovers a zeal highly to be commended. 
But while it is acknowledged that great advantages have been 
derived from these institutions, perhaps it may be justly appre- 
hended that multiplying them may have a tendency to injure 
the ancient and beneficial m.ode of education in town grammar 
schools. 

" The peculiar advantage of such schools is that the poor and 
the rich may derive equal benefit from them ; but none excepting 
the more wealthy, generally speaking, can avail themselves of the 
benefits of the academies. Should these institutions detach the 
attention and influence of the wealthy from the generous support 
of the town schools, is it not to be feared that useful learning, 
instruction, and social feelings in the early parts of life may cease 
to be so equally and universally disseminated as it has heretofore 
beenr'^ 

Judge Phillips seems to have given up the town grammar 
school as hopeless before determining to establish an academy. 
The public was not sufficiently interested to get and keep 
good teachers — if such could be found ; the school was 
lacking in moral and religious vitality ; and it was unfortu- 
nately bound down to a study of the classics.^ At Haverhill, 
as late as 1825, there was an animated newspaper discussion 
of the question whether an academy should be established or 
steps taken to improve the existing town grammar school.^ 

When the new type of school came to be well recognized 
and popular, some of the old grammar schools were regularly 
transformed into academies. The Hopkins school at Hadley 

^ Quoted by Martin, Massachusetts public school system, pp. 128-129. 
- Park, Earlier annals, pp. 11-20. 
8 Bartlett, Haverhill Academy, etc., p. 20. 

16 



242 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

was one of these. As early as 1754, a vote was passed de- 
claring that, " The Town is willing that the estate given for 
the support of a Grammar School in the Town of Hadley, 
be employed ... for the support of an Academy in the 
Town of Hadley." If this suggestion had been acted on 
immediately, Hadley would in all probability have had the 
first New England academy. It was more than sixty years, 
however, before such a step was taken. In 1816 the trus- 
tees of the " Hopkins Donation School," as it was then 
called, were incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature 
as " The Trustees of Hopkins Academy." In accordance 
with the policy formulated in 1797, the legislature made a 
grant of a half-township of land for the benefit of the new 
academy. This was in 1820. 

A famous suit at law, affecting the Hopkins Academy, 
was carried through the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in 
1833. The trustees were charged with a perversion of the 
true intent of the Hopkins foundation in that they had 
extended the privileges of the academy to non-residents of 
Hadley on equal terms with members of the home commu- 
nity. The court rendered its decision in favor of the defence, 
finding no ground for the supposition that the endowment 
was originally intended for the exclusive use of the inhabi- 
tants of Hadley. This case throws a side-light of some 
importance on the relation of the academies to the public.^ 

The grammar school at Koxbury was incorporated in 
1789, the board of trustees being made the successors of 
both the feoffees of the original grammar school and the 
trustees of the Bell endowment. In this instance, some 
shreds of connection with both ecclesiastical and civil au- 
thorities were retained ; for the minister and the two oldest 
deacons of the First Church of Christ in Roxbury were made 
members of the corporation by virtue of their respective 
offices, and the trustees were required to exhibit a copy of 
their accounts at the call of the town meeting. 

1 Cf. History of the Hopkins fund, grammar school and academy, ch. 8-10, 
aud 15. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 243 

The grammar school at Hartford, so long maintained, with 
such varying fortunes, became virtually an academy by its 
incorporation in 1798. It still continued to be a one-teacher 
school until 1828, when it was broadened out and four 
teachers were employed. The funds, however, were inade- 
quate, and the affairs of the school were in a bad way until 
the high school movement gave it new life some eighteen 
years after this. 

On the other hand, a few of the old grammar schools 
successfully resisted the new movements. Foremost among 
these was the Boston Latin School, which continued to be 
a Latin school of the earlier type, and devoted itself steadily, 
and almost exclusively, to the preparation of students for 
admission to Harvard College. 

Under the system adopted for the public schools of Boston 
in 1789, the minimum age for admission to the Latin School ^ 
was fixed at ten years, and the course of study was reduced 
to four years. Children were from this time on admitted 
to the reading and writing schools of the town at the age 
of seven years, " having previously received the instruction 
usual at Women's Schools," i. e., at the so-called " dame 
schools ; " and might continue vibrating daily between the 
reading and writing schools up to the age of fourteen. 
Those who from the age of ten entered the Latin school 
were permitted to spend certain hours .daily thereafter in a 
writing school. 

Under Principal Gould, about 1823, the age of admission 
to the Latin School was reduced to nine years, and one year 
was added to the length of the curriculum. In 1860, the 
curriculum was lengthened to six years, and the time of 
admission raised again to ten years. Later changes belong 
to the high school period, and show somewhat the influence 
of the high schools and of the forces which have been 
shaping the high school policy.^, 

1 It was not until this time that the name Latin School or Latin Grammar 
School became definitely settled on the institution, wliich has been so designated 
to the present day. 

^ Jenks, Historical sketch, passim. 



244 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The inner life of the academies was different in many 
ways from that of the earlier schools. A large proportion of 
the academy students came from a distance, and were for 
the time being under the quasi-parental oversight of the 
academy teachers. Dormitories were not generally provided 
at first. The students were boarded in the town as were 
those in attendance on the county grammar schools. The 
academy superintendence was extended, in a way, to their 
life in these temporary homes. It was not long, however, 
before institutions appeared with provision for the whole 
round of the student's life. Nazareth Hall, as we saw, had 
its dormitory from the start. 

The average age of academy students was higher than 
that of the boys in the grammar schools ; and it was no 
uncommon thing to see young men who had already attained 
their majority beginning Latin in one of these schools along 
with little boys. Benjamin Abbot, the chief of our early acad- 
emy masters, was himself one of those who had started late. 
In some instances young volunteers at the close of their army 
service entered an academy to continue their interrupted 
schooling. The presence of girls in many of these schools 
brought with it an atmosphere of home. On the whole, 
the discipline of the academies was milder than that of 
the grammar schools had been, and the student bodv was 
characterized by somewhat more of maturity of thought and 
purpose. 

Student organizations soon began to appear. These were 
commonly, at first, rhetorical or debating clubs. Such a 
club, known as the Rhetorical Society, was in existence at 
Phillips Exeter previous to the year 1818. In that year the 
Golden Branch Society was organized, which seems before 
long to have taken the place of the earlier organization. 
This was a secret society at the outset. It seems to have 
had great influence in shaping the life of the school. Its 
president, a few years after its founding, spoke of earlier 
days when academy boys and town boys had sometimes 
met in open conflict, armed with cudgels, clubs, and even. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 245 

it was added, with pistols. He attributed the more peace- 
able character which the academy had then, in 1824, achieved, 
to the influence of the Grolden Branch. At a later time a 
fierce feud broke out between this society and the academy 
boys who had not been admitted to its charmed circle, but 
it was long before a rival society was established. The 
Social Fraternity and the Philomathean Society of the Phil- 
lips Andover Academy date from about this time. 

Annual and occasional " exhibitions " were affairs in which 
the social interest of the academy year culminated. "We 
find such an exhibition referred to at Leicester Academy as 
early as 1785. And five years later we hear of a dramatic 
performance by the academy pupils. The academy plays 
at Leicester soon came to be looked forward to with great 
anticipations. They were acted in the meeting-house, if 
contemporary accounts may be believed. Scenery was con- 
structed, and both boys and girls took part in the represen- 
tation, the academy being co-educational. One play referred 
to was the " Scolding Wife." ^ 

School hours were shortened somewhat, and there was 
time for play. At Leicester, in 1820, the school day lasted 
from eight to twelve in the forenoon and from two to six in 
the afternoon. But in 1834 this was reduced. From half- 
past eight to twelve and from half-past one to half-past four 
were the hours then prescribed, with a change of the after- 
noon session in summer to make it extend from two to 
five.^ 

Football was the standard autumn game at Phillips Exe- 
ter as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
The whole school participated in this game, being divided 
into two equal sides. No one was allowed to take the ball 
from the ground, and the game consisted for the most part 
of vigorous kicking. "Bat and ball" was played in the 
spring. 

A very unfavorable account of American education was 

^ Washburn, op. cit., p. 21. 
2 Op. cit., p. 27. 



246 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

published in Blackwood's Magazine in the year 1819.^ It 
begins with condemnation of the academies : " The Ameri- 
cans take a strange delight in high-sounding names, and 
often satisfy themselves for the want of the thing, by the 
assumption of the name. These academies are not always 
exclusively classical schools ; some are partly appropriated 
to education for the counter and the counting-room; and 
as far as this object goes, there is no striking defect in 
them ; it not being a very difficult matter to teach a lad to 
count his fingers and take care of his dollars. But in all 
that relates to classic learning, they are totally deficient ; 
there is not one, from Maine to Georgia, which has yet 
sent forth a single first-rate scholar; no, not one since the 
settlement of the country, equal even to the most ordinary 
of the thirty or forty, which come out every year from 
Schule Pforta, and Meissen. . . . This arises from bad mas- 
ters and a bad method of study. . . . They [the masters] 
are mere language masters, not scholars. . . . Virgil and 
Cicero are read in the miserable paraphrases of Davidson 
and Duncan. In this way the preparatory books are run 
through ; nothing is read but what is necessary for matric- 
ulation, and that so superficially as to be of no use." 

The common American practice of educating boys in day 
schools is condemned. Those Carolina gentlemen who have 
sent their sons to Europe to be educated are accorded high 
praise. " The city of Charleston is still illuminated by a 
constellation of these European formed scholars." But the 
picture that is presented of the country as a whole is dark 
enough. Higher education is shown to be as badly off as 
that of middle grade, if not, indeed, in a worse condition. 

This attack called forth a reply in the Nortli American 
Review for September of the same year. But this was a 
rather halting production, admitting much that the writer in 

1 Two articles On the means of education, and the state of learning, in the 
United States of America. Of. Mr. McMaster's extended review of tlie con- 
troversial literature of which these articles formed a part, in his History of tlie 
^people of the United States, V., ch. 48. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 247 

Blachivood' s had asserted, and offering only a vague answer to 
such criticisms as met with dissent. The hopeful signs that 
appear in this discussion are an acknowledgment of the high 
attainments of Americans in the learned professions, and 
some indications of a disposition to improve the schools. 

Whatever their defects, it would be difficult to measure 
the influence of the academies in our new national life. 
They were in sympathetic touch with our inchoate civili- 
zation, and helped it to find itself in its relations with the 
great world of human thought. Eevolution on both sides 
of the Atlantic marked the age of their early development. 
The romantic movement was winning its triumphs in Eng- 
lish as well as Continental literature. The Americanism 
and republicanism of the early academies was ready to 
respond to such influences. The romantic spirit was there 
in full measure. So a generation was brought up prepared 
to appreciate and take pride in the work of our early Amer- 
ican writers. Probably the great majority of that constitu- 
ency for which Bi'yant and Irving and Cooper and Simms 
and Willis wrote had had their taste formed in the old acad- 
emies or felt only a little less directly the academy influence. 
And when the great group of New Englanders began to 
produce, a large part of their readers were such as had 
received an academy education. 

We have seen that at the outset the academies were not 
intended as preparatory schools, and represented rather an 
independent educational movement. As time went on, they 
came into close relations with the colleges. But while the 
grammar schools simply followed the lead of the colleges 
and sought to meet their requirements, there can be little 
doubt that the academies reacted at the first with some 
degree of influence upon the higher institutions. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth and the earlier part 
of the nineteenth century, the colleges were receiving many 
intimations of the fact that their curriculum did not meet 
the public need. The academies were the popular institu- 
tions of the day in more senses than one. But the colleges 



248 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

came by slow degrees into closer adjustment with the 
demands of the age. They enlarged their programme of stud- 
ies, but to do this was to add subjects already taught in 
the academies. It is altogether likely that one considera- 
tion which led the colleges to make such a change was the 
example of the more popular schools ; and this seems all 
the more probable when we remember that some of the 
progressive college men of the time had had their first 
experience as teachers in one or another of these academies. 

An excellent example is found in Timothy Dwight the 
elder. In his career as an academy instructor he had taken 
a deep interest in studies in natural science. He carried 
this same spirit into the presidency of Yale College. He 
called about him such men as Silliman, Olmsted, and 
Dana, and soon made Yale the chief scientific centre 
among our American colleges. This course of action greatly 
increased the popularity and influence of that institution, 
and was doubtless one reason why it became such a mighty 
force in the making of our western civilization. Other 
eastern colleges, whether influenced by Yale or by the acad- 
emies or by popular sentiment or by all at once, expanded 
gradually their range of instruction. 

The establishment of other college courses, parallel with 
the time-honored classical course, seems to have begun at 
Columbia, where a scientific and literary course was offered 
as early as 1830. French appears among the subjects 
required for admission to that course. This was a notable 
innovation. It was not until the seventies that modern lan- 
guages were included among the subjects which might be 
offered for admission to the classical course of our leading 
colleges.^ The " parallel " course at Columbia was discon- 
tinued in 1843. But about this time other colleges began 
offering similar courses ; and already Harvard was making 
those noteworthy early experiments in the introduction of 
elective college studies. 

In English, mathematics, and natural science, it seems 

1 Dr. Broome's MS. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 249 

clear that some of the academies, at the close of the last 
century and for one or two decades thereafter, were far in 
advance of the requirements for admission to college. Presi- 
dent Dwight made his academy at Greenfield Hill "not 
only preparatory to but parallel with the college course." ^ 
Moses Waddel, in South Carolina, prepared his better 
students to enter the junior class in college.^ Lewis Cass, 
in 1799, received from Phillips Exeter Academy a certificate 
to the effect that he had been a member of the academy 
seven years ; that he had " acquired the principles of the 
English, French, Latin, and Greek languages, Geography, 
Arithmetic, and practical Geometry ; " and that he had 
" made very valuable progress in the study of Khetoric, 
History, Natural and Moral Philosophy, Logic, Astronomy 
and Natural Law." ^ Yet neither geography nor arithmetic 
seems to have been required for admission to Harvard Col- 
lege until 1803. In the early days of the college, arithmetic 
had been a study for the senior year. The Constitution of 
the Episcopal Academy, adopted in 1796, provided that the 
following subjects should be taught in that institution : 
"The English Language, Philosophy, Mathematics, History, 
and every other science usually taught at Colleges; likewise 
the dead languages, such as Greek and Latin." ^ These 
institutions knew hardly any limit to their studies except- 
ing such as were fixed by the demand for instruction and 
their ability to meet that demand. 

But in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when \ 
high schools had largely taken the place of academies as the 
ordinary agency of secondary education, the academies swung ' 
back toward the position of distinctively " preparatory " 
institutions. The reputation that some of them have gained 
as among the foremost fitting schools for our foremost col- 
leges, has obscured the fact that fitting for college was a \ 
subordinate consideration in their original establishment. 

1 Steiner, Education in Connecticut, p. 136. 

2 Meriwether, Higher education m South. Carolina, p. 40. 

3 Bell, Phillips Exeter Academy, p. 25. 
* Steiner, op. cit., p. 57. 



250 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The new colleges growing up in the western and southern 
states, where secondary schools were still few and weak, 
were generally under the necessity of maintaining prepara- 
tory departments. These came to be commonly known as 
academies. They contributed largely to the secondary edu- 
cation of the newer portions of the country. In not a few 
instances, the academy was first established, and the college 
was a later development, after the fashion of the Philadel- 
phia institution. 

Whether the direct influence of the academies on the 
colleges was great or small, there can be no doubt as to the 
greatness of their services in certain other directions. A 
new sense of the need of elementary schools was arising and 
the number of such schools was on the increase. But there 
was a great lack of even moderately well-prepared teachers, 
and the academies were looked to for improvement in this 
respect. We have seen that one reason urged by Franklin 
for the establishment of the academy at Philadelphia was 
" that a number of the poorer sort will hereby be qualified 
to act as schoolmasters in the country." We may well 
imagine that the need was great.^ 

Again and again we find the establishment of academies 
urojed on the ground of the need of better teachers in the 
elementary schools. In 1830 a seminary was opened by 
Samuel R. Hall, in connection with the Phillips Academy at 
Andover, for the special preparation of teachers for the 
common schools. Horace Mann visited and studied this 
school when he was engaged in furthering the state normal 
school movement. The Regents of the University of New 

1 Goveriior Worthington of Ohio, in 1817, recommended that a free school 
be established at the capital of the state " to educate . . . the sons of poor 
parents (no other) for teachers." Quoted by Mayo, Education in the North- 
west during the first half century of the Repuhlic. Report of the Commis- 
sioner of Education, 1894-95, p. 1531. In this case poo?' evidently refers to 
lack of means rather than lack of brains ; perhaps so in Franklin's suggestion. 
In Jefferson's scheme, the brighter pupils who had completed the grammar 
school course were to be sent to college and those less bright were to be sent 
out as teachers. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 251 

York in their annual report of 1821 say of the academies: 
" It is to these seminaries that we must look for a supply 
of teachers for the common schools." In 1833 teachers' 
classes were instituted in these New York academies. 
Eepeated efforts were made in Pennsylvania to make the 
academies answer the purpose of normal schools. Finally, 
when the organization of state normal schools began, in 
1839, the institution that came into being was an academy 
without foreign languages, in which students were instructed 
in the various school subjects with especial reference to the 
consideration that they were in their turn to teach those 
subjects to others. 

Not only were the academies the direct forerunners of the 
normal schools : the academy movement was connected also 
with a great forward movement in the higher education of 
women. In colonial times the education which girls might 
receive consisted of the mere learning in some dame school 
to read and to recite the catechism, in addition to the training 
to household arts in the home, and the religious instruction 
given from the pulpit. The story is told of a hungry- 
minded little girl in Hatfield, Massachusetts, who used to go 
to the school-house and sit on the doorstep to hear the boys 
recite their lessons. ^ Such privileges were not for those of 
her sex. 

When the town school was first set up in Dorchester, the 
selectmen were directed to determine from time to time 
whether " the maydes shall be taught with the boys or not." 
The decision of this question seems not to have been in the 
affirmative for over one hundred and fifty years — not in- 
deed till 1784, when girls were allowed to attend the school 
during the summer months.^ 

The regulations adopted for the Hopkins Grammar School 
at New Haven, in 1684, provided, 

" 2. That noe Boyes be admitted into y^ s*^ Schoole for y' learn- 
ing of English Books, but such as have been before taught to spell y' 

^ Stow, Mt. Hohjokc Seminary, p. 4. 
2 Am. Joicrn. Ed., XXVII., p. 105. 



252 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

letters well & begin to Eead . . . & y* all others either too young 
& not instructed in letters & spelling & all Girles be excluded as 
Improper & inconsistent w* such a Grammar Schoole as y^ law 
injoines, and is y^ Designe of this Settlem'."^ 

It does not appear whether the stigma of impropriety 
attached chiefly to the youth, the illiteracy, or the femi- 
ninity of those excluded. 

Yet even in this period there were girls who persuaded 
their fathers, brothers, or friends to teach them, and in 
various irregular ways some young women did rise to the 
attainment of knowledge beyond the merest rudiments. 
In the Kevolutionary period, and for some years previous, 
the demand for learning was already so strong on the part 
of young women and girls that some sort of provision was 
made here and there for their instruction. Teachers in 
boys' schools, as in Philadelphia and Boston, formed classes 
out of their regular school hours for teaching girls writing, 
arithmetic, and the elements of English grammar. 

In the Diary of David McClure we find a reference, 
under date of November 7, 1773, to a school of exceptional 
character at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. " The Selectmen 
invited me," so the journal reads, " to take the care of a 
public School of Misses." The invitation was accepted, 
and the account continues under date of December 1 : 

" Opened the School, consisting the first day of about 30 Misses. 
Afterwards they increased to 70 and 80 ; so that I was obliged to 
divide the day between them, & one half came in tlae forenoon, and 
the other in the Afternoon. They were from 7 to 20 years of age. 
Mr. Samuel Parker, afterwards settled in the ministry in Boston, 
was my predecessor in the school. I attended to them in reading, 
writing, arithmetic & geography principally. This is, I believe, 
the only female School, (supported by the town) in New England, 
it is a wise and useful institution," " 

1 Am. Journ. Ed., XXVIII., p. 303. 

2 Op. cit., p. 148. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 253 

Dr. McClure was engaged to keep the school for five 
months at a salary of X60 "per annum/' the five months 
presumably constituting the annum. 

The reminiscences of the Eev. William Woodbridge seem 
to indicate that about the year 1770 girls were taught in 
the public schools in and around Hartford, Connecticut. 
They " had no separate classes, though generally sitting on 
separate benches." ^ 

There is not much in any of the schools referred to above 
that could by any stretch of the term be brought within the 
compass of secondary education. But after the Eevolution, 
private schools for girls, of a somewhat higher grade, began 
to appear. Several Yale men were prominent in the earlier 
stages of this movement. Two Yale students, during the 
interruption of college exercises by the British occupation 
of New Haven, in 1779-80, taught each a class of young 
women for the term of one quarter. One of them, the Eev. 
William Woodbridge, of the class of 1780, kept a young 
ladies' school at ISTew Haven during his senior year, in which 
he taught grammar, geography, composition, and rhetoric.^ 
Jedediah Morse had a similar school at New Haven in 1783. 
And Timothy Dwight, after teaching a mixed school at 
Northampton, made his academy at Greenfield Hill, opened 
in 1785, a co-educational institution. 

About the year 1780 an academy for girls was established 
by Dr. Eush and others at Philadelphia.^ A few other in- 
stitutions, either co-educational or for girls only,'^appeared 
before the close of the eighteenth century. A " female 
academy "was maintained at Medford from 1789 to 1796, 
which is said to have been the first institution of its kind in 
New England.* Leicester Academy (1784) and Westford 
Academy (1793) were co-educational from the start. Brad- 
ford Academy (1803) was co-educational for many years, and 
then became a school for girls alone.^ 

1 Reminiscences of Senex. Reproduced in ih& Am. Joitrn. Ed., XXVII., 
pp. 273-276. 

2 jci_^ p. 274. 8 Loc. cit. * Loc. cit. 
5 Stow, Mt. Holyoke Seminary, p. 7. 



254 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

In 1814, Catherine Fiske began her twenty- three-year 
term of service as a teacher of young women at Keene, New 
Hampshire. More than twenty-five hundred in all came to 
her, and she taught them botany, chemistry, Watts on the 
Mind, and other studies.^ The Eev. Joseph Emerson's 
seminary for young women at Byfield and Saugus, 1818- 
'24, received about one thousand pupils, many of them 
young school-teachers. It is of especial significance in this 
record because of the fact that Miss Zilpah P. Grant (Mrs. 
William B. Banister) and Miss Mary Lyon received in it 
some part of their academic training and a great part of that 
inspiration which made them apostles of education to the 
women of New England.^ 

Emma Hart (Mrs. John Willard) after teaching for a 
time at Westfield, Massachusetts, Middlebury, Vermont, and 
Waterford, New York, founded in 1821 the Troy Seminary, 
at Troy, New York, which commanded widespread interest. 
It is said that two hundred schools for girls, one-half of 
them in the southern states, have come into existence as a 
result of the influence of this one institution.^ Miss Cath- 
erine Beecher's seminary at Hartford (1822-3?) also exer- 
cised a very wide influence. The writings of Miss Beecher, 
added to her success in the conduct of this school, contrib- 
uted very greatly to the growing popularity of woman's 
education. The Adams Academy at Derry, New Hampshire 
(1823), was the first in New England to be endowed and 
incorporated expressly for the education of girls. Miss 
Grant and Miss Lyon were co-laborers in this school for 
four years. Then they removed to Ipswich, where the first 
incorporated girls' academy in Massachusetts came into 
existence in 1828,^ The Abbot Academy at Andover was 
incorporated the following year.* 

Caleb Bingham and Ebenezer Bailey and many others had 
an honorable part in this earlier movement. Finally, in the 

1 Stow, op. ciL, p. 8. ^ /^j,^ cb. 3. 

^ JEmma Willard and her pupils, ch. 1-5. 
* Stow, op. cit., chs. 1 and 3. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 255 

eighteen-liundred-thirties, two institutions were established 
that have led the two main lines of advance in the higher 
education of womeif: A new college, bristling all over with 
unpopular principles, was established in 1833 at Oberlin, Ohio, 
which courageously introduced the innovation of collegiate 
co-educatioiu The labors of Mary Lyon culminated in the 
incorporation of the Mount Holyoke Seminary, in 1836. 
These institutions, as they were then, would look poor and 
weak in comparison with any high-grade college, whether 
co-educational or for women only, of the present day. But 
they were great in the nobility of their purposes, and in 
their promise of these later developments. 

The beginnings which were making at this same time in 
the education of girls at Catholic convents are referred to in 
another place. That movement had some direct connection 
with the one we are considering here ; for the Catholic com- 
petition lent new spirit to the efforts of those who were 
seeking to build up Protestant schools for girls. The fear 
of religious and political dangers which might arise if the 
mothers of the land should be generally educated in convent 
schools is often referred to in the discussions of the time. 

^ One other consideration which greatly stimulated this 
movement toward a higher education for women was the 
fact that women were coming to be much more generally 
employed as teachers. There was need of a larger num- 
ber who should be well enough educated to give intelli- 
gent instruction to the little ones. The normal school 
movement and movements in the education of women 
have more than once been found very closely bound 
together. 

But perhaps even more weight should be attached to the 
growing conviction that education is a good thing in itself. 
The nineteenth century ideal of liberal culture — a culture 
which is proper to human beings simply because they are 
human — carried the day for the education of women in the 
face of the question, " Who shall cook our food if girls are 
to be taught philosophy ? " 



256 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The strong religious trend of the academies has already 
been referred to. Generally speaking, they were not founded 
for the immediate theological purpose which was upper- 
most in the organization of the schools of the noncon- 
formists in England. Yet the Phillips Andover Academy 
has had an intimate connection with the development 
of theological instruction in this country. Dr. Bancroft, 
the late principal of this academy, said of the Andover 
Theological Seminary : " It claims to be the first regular 
theological seminary distinctively and exclusively organized 
for the theological training of ministers of Protestant 
churches in the United States." ^ It seems clear that the 
idea not only of general religious instruction but of provision 
for the direct preparation of young men for the ministry 
was entertained by the founders of that academy from the 
outset ; and a theological professor was employed for some 
years before the theological seminary was established. The 
seminary proper was opened in 1808. Before that time 
Protestant theological institutions had been established at 
New Brunswick, New Jersey ; Xenia, Ohio ; and Bethle- 
hem, Pennsylvania ; and a Catholic seminary at Baltimore. 

This brief survey can give only a hint of the part which 
the old academies have played in our national life. For a 
better understanding of the springs of their influence we 
must get some glimpses of the personal touch and tone of 
academy teaching, which was after all the most vital thing in 
the whole academy history. This portion of their story will 
be told, in some small part, in the chapter on Teachers and 
Teaching. 

NOTE 

In the interest of brevity, it has been necessary to make this chapter for 
the most part a composite picture of the remarkable class of schools with 
which it deals. There was enough of unity in the spirit and general move- 
ment of these multifarious institutions to make such treatment possi- 
ble, yet it has been followed with a full sense of the danger it involves 

1 See Bush, Higher education in Mass., p. 236 fF. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ACADEMIES 257 

of neglecting a thousand important diiFerences. The materials used have 
been drawn from many sources, but chiefly from a large number of his- 
tories of individual schools. The titles of these histories, so far as 
they have come under my personal examination, are given in the general 
bibliography. I should be glad to be told of other publications of this 
sort. There are doubtless many which have not yet come to my notice. 



17 



CHAPTEE XII 

TEACHERS AND TEACHING 

These old academies have been held in loving remembrance 
by those who enjoyed their privileges. It is pleasant to 
read such words of reminiscence as their old-time students 
have put on record, and not surprising that they sometimes 
lament the glory departed, when they turn their attention to 
the high school of these later days. Some of this feeling is 
doubtless due to the fact so often noted that scenes grow 
fairer as they pass from present experience to become only 
things remembered. But that is not all. Individual enter- 
prise and the endeavors of small groups of friends and 
neighbors, overcoming difficulties together, played a large 
part in the making of those academies. A personal and 
romantic interest attaches to such undertakings, which is 
often missed in great public systems like our state systems 
of schools. An institution that was picturesque and inter- 
esting enough when standing alone may be thought com- 
monplace when it appears as one among many of the same 
sort, all organized under uniform statutory provisions. 

There were other reasons for the strong hold those acade- 
mies gained upon the affection of their students. And among 
these must be mentioned the fact that, through some fortu- 
nate combination of circumstances, a goodly number of very 
able teachers were at one time and another employed in 
them. Some of these fine old masters should be mentioned 
by name in such a sketch as this. 

The second principal at Phillips Exeter, Benjamin Abbot, 
LL.D., is perhaps the most famous of those early teachers 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 259 

whose reputation rests altogether upon their academy- 
career. He was an Andover man, and came of a long line 
of ancestors who had all lived upon the same Andover farm. 
Benjamin was nineteen years of age when he entered the 
newly opened Phillips Andover Academy and began the 
study of Latin. He was one of Principal Pearson's boys. 
In 1788 he was graduated from Harvard College, aod was 
immediately called to teach at Phillips Exeter. He was 
virtually the head of the institution from that time on, and 
in 1790 was regularly elected to the principalship. His 
salary at the first was " one hundred and thirty-three pounds 
six shillings and eight-pence, lawful money," per year. It 
was soon increased to one hundred and fifty pounds. In 
1799 it was made seven hundred dollars. He had also the 
free use of a dwelling house. 

He was a tall man, finely proportioned, graceful in every 
movement, and his pupils long remembered the sweet and 
gentle dignity of his expression. It has been said that he 
knew the " science of boys." He had a long forefinger, and 
boys of every sort trembled when he shook it ominously 
before them. He punished with notable thoroughness, but 
the culprit was restored to respect and favor as soon as the 
punishment was over. Judge H. C. Whitman, of Cincin- 
nati, recalled in after years one occasion on which he was 
directed to come to the library at eight o'clock in the morn- 
ing, to meet Dr. Abbot on serious business. He was met at 
the front door with the command, " Go round to the back 
door, sir." Having reached the library from the rear of the 
house, he had an interview with the Doctor which he does 
not describe in detail. But at the close he was taken to the 
front door and bowed politely out ! 

The father of Lewis Cass hesitated to send his son to the 
academy because the boy was so wild and hard to manage. 
But the preceptor said, " Send him to me, and I '11 see wliat 
I can do with him." The experiment was altogether suc- 
cessful. After it had gone on for several months, the elder 
Cass declared to Dr. Abbot that " if Lewis was half as afraid 



260 THE MAKING OF OUB MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

of the Almighty as he is of you, I should never have any 
more trouble with him." 

Of his scholarship a very favorable account is given. 
Cicero and Horace were his favorite authors. His reading 
of the Latin text of the orations against Catiline and the 
Carmen Scectdare was highly expressive, and produced a 
great impression upon his pupils. He was a student, and 
kept up a living acquaintance not only with new works 
relating to the classic literatures and languages, but with 
current publications in the fields of politics, theology, gen- 
eral literature, and education. His own contribution to the 
literature of classical study was not unimportant. At his 
request, a friend who visited Europe in 1802 looked into 
the methods of instruction at Eton and other prominent 
schools, and made him acquainted with the results of the 
investigation. 

In 1838, Dr. Abbot withdrew from the principalship of 
the academy, in which he had labored with great success for 
the period of fifty years. A jubilee festival was held on 
this occasion, and many men, former pupils of the school 
who had become eminent in various walks in life, came 
together at Exeter to do honor to the great teacher. Daniel 
Webster presided at the celebration. Letters were read 
from Lewis Cass, Josiah Quincy, and Dr. Dana. Speeches 
were made by Edward Everett, John P. Hale, Caleb Cushing, 
and others whose reputation was national. Dr. Abbot was 
presented with a massive silver vase, Mr. Webster making 
the presentation address. His portrait was presented to the 
academy. Funds were subscribed to found an Abbot scholar- 
ship at Cambridge. It must, from all accounts have been a 
time when good feeling overflowed and school reminiscence 
was at its best. We may well doubt whether many occa- 
sions worthy to be compared with this have been known in 
the history of our secondary schools. 

Dr. Abbot was succeeded in the principalship of the 
academy by the hardly less venerated Gideon Lane Soule, 
who had been a teacher in the institution since 1822. Dr. 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 261 

Soule's jubilee was celebrated with warmth and enthusiasm 
in 1872.1 

The constitutions of both of the Phillips academies 
charged the trustees to exercise great care in the selection 
of suitable men for the principalship. This injunction was 
heeded at Andover as well as at Exeter. Here the first 
principal, Eliphalet Pearson, afterwards professor of Hebrew 
at Harvard, and still later back at Andover, in the theologi- 
cal seminary, was a man of great force and versatility and 
of commanding presence.^ To the boys he was " Elephant 
Pearson." A pupil who had been reprimanded by him was 
asked how he came through the ordeal. The youngster 
replied, " I pinched myself to see whether I was alive." 
Washington is reported to have said of this master, " His 
eye shows him worthy not only to lead boys, but to com- 
mand men." 

He rendered the Commander no unimportant service ; for 
when Judge Phillips erected his powder mill, he depended 
on his friend, the schoolmaster, to help him over the diffi- 
culty of a lack of saltpetre. Pearson improvised a labora- 
tory, and by dint of hard labor, study, and experiment, found 
a way to supply the missing ingredient. At another time 
he showed skill of a different sort by constructing a bass 
viol, which stood for a long time in the Old South church at 
Andover. 

Our earliest account of the routine life of Phillips An- 
dover is contained in a letter addressed by Principal Pear- 
son to his trustees, in 1780 : 

" School begins at eight o'clock with devotional exercises ; a 
psalm is read and sung. Then a class consisting of four scholars 
repeats memoriter two pages in Greek Grammar, after which a class 

^ Bell, Phillips Exeter Academy. Cunningham, Familiar sketches. 
Article inN. A. Rev. for July, 1858. 

2 " . . . Great Eliphalet (I can see him now, — 

Big name, big frame, big voice, and beetling brow)." 

Holmes, The School-hoy. 



262 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

of thirty persons repeats a page and a half of Latin Grammar ; 
then follows the ' Accidence tribe,' who repeat two, three, four, 
five and ten pages each. To this may be added three who are 
studying arithmetic ; one is in the Rule of Three, another in Fel- 
lowship, and the third in Practice. School is closed at night by 
reading Dr, Doddridge's Family Expositor, accompanied by rehear- 
sals, questions, remarks and reflections, and by the singing of a 
hymn and a prayer. On Monday the scholars recite what they 
can remember of the sermons heard on the Lord's Day previous ; 
on Saturday the bills are presented and punishments administered." ^ 

The story of John Adams, who was principal of Phillips 
Andover from 1810 to 1833, has recently been put before 
the public in a very readable volume.^ Dr. Adams came to 
the principalship at the age of thirty -eight. He was a 
graduate of Yale College, and had already won distinction 
by his success in the principalship of the academy at Plain- 
field, Connecticut, and of the Bacon Academy, at Colchester 
in the same state. About two thousand pupils had been 
under his instruction. He was a straightforward, simple- 
hearted man, who gave himself wholly to the duties of his 
office. He would have no ceremony of inauguration, but 
when the time came to enter upon his new duties, he went 
straight to the schoolroom alone and took up the work of 
the day. 

It is the successor of this schoolroom, in a building 
erected several years after Dr. Adams began his labors at 
Andover, that is celebrated by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 
his centennial anniversary poem, 

"THE SCHOOL-BOY. 

" How all comes back ! The upward slautiug floor, — 
The masters' thrones that flauk the central door, — 
The long, outstretching alleys that divide 
The rows of desks that stand on either side, — 

1 The story of John Adams, pp. 47-48. Josiah Quincy's recollections of 
Phillips Academy in the days of Principals Pearson and Pemberton are given 
in Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, ch. 2. 

'■^ Already cited in the preceding foot-note. 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 263 

The staring boys, a face to every desk, 

Bright, dull, pale, blooming, common, picturesque. 

Grave is the Master's look ; his forehead wears 

Thick rows of wrinkles, prints of worrying cares ; 

Uneasy lie the heads of all that rule, 

His most of all whose kingdom is a school. 

Supreme he sits ; before the awful frown 

That bends his brows the boldest eye goes down ; 

Not more submissive Israel heard and saw 

At Sinai's foot the Giver of the Law." 

We are assured that so far as it goes this is a faithful 
description of both the room and the master. 

There were twenty-three boys in the Andover Academy 
when Dr. Adams became its principal. By 1817, it had 
increased to one hundred, and the Preceptor had three 
assistants. In all, Dr. Adams admitted 1,119 pupils to the 
academy. Nearly one-fifth of these became ministers. In 
1832, his catalogue showed ninety pupils — a slight falling- 
off since the early twenties. Phillips Exeter, too, admitted 
fewer pupils during the third decade of the century than 
during the second, and a still smaller number in the 
eighteen-hundred-thirties. Dr. Adams reported that his 
ninety were all pursuing classical studies. 

Thucydides and Herodotus were introduced into the acad- 
emy early in Dr. Adams's principalship. It is said of the 
Doctor's scholarship that, " His attainments, if not brilliant, 
were substantial. What he knew he knew thoroughly, and 
he had an unusual faculty for communicating knowledge to 
the minds of others." 

But he became conscious of the fact that members of his 
board of trustees desired a younger man in the principal- 
ship of the institution. He immediately resigned his office, 
and began looking for another position. There is some- 
thing very pitiful in the story of his wearisome search over 
New England and New York for a place in which his 
undoubted talents should be in demand. The father of 
a former pupil, finally, gave him cordial encouragement to 
open a school at Elbridge, in New York. There for three 



264 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

years he conducted an institution which afterwards grew 
into Monroe Academy. 

In the Andover days, Dr. Adams had been associated 
with the professors of the Theological Seminary in project- 
ing the American Education Society, an organization which 
exerted a strong influence in the building up of educational 
institutions in the new west. Andover was in fact one of the 
chief centres of the educational propaganda which the east 
was beginning to carry on in the west ; and John i^dams 
was quite in touch with movements in which he had long 
been deeply concerned, when he withdrew from the acad- 
emy at Elbridge, and went on a difficult educational pil- 
grimage to the wilds of Illinois. 

In that new country he labored for long years as a 
teacher and Sunday-school missionary, and there he died, 
in Jacksonville, in the ninety-first year of his age. His 
career is worthy of very honorable mention ; and no part of 
it shows more of the real soundness of the man's character 
than does his ready giving-up of the dearest associations 
of his life when the good of his school seemed to demand 
the sacrifice, and his turning without bitterness to throw 
the whole strength of his later years into new and arduous 
labors. 

We may get a glimpse of school life at Andover in the 
time of Principal Adams, from a letter of AYilliam Person, a 
student in the academy : 

"Phillips Academy, June 18, [1814]. 
" I will relate to you the order of our studies, which, while it 
may amuse, may also serve to apologise for my delay. I will 
begin on Sunday, as that is the first day of the week. If we are 
absent from meeting, where our attendance is strictly required, we 
are noted for absence by some one of the monitors, and our 
names are reported to the Principal on the monitor's bill at the 
end of the term. We are liable to be called upon the next day to 
give an abstract of the sermons. For morning recitations on 
Monday we are allotted ten pages of Vincent's explanations of tlie 
Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism. This must be com- 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 265 

mitted on Sunday or Monday morning, as we have no other time. 
For morning recitations on Saturday about as many pages of an 
inestimable tract by Mason on Self-knowledge ; this we learn as 
we have opportunity between Monday and Saturday, So much of 
our time and attention is given to religious and moral studies. It 
is not only a useful exercise for the memory, but it is an excellent 
method of bringing us to an acquaintance with God, with man- 
kind and with ourselves — knowledge of the greatest possible im- 
portance. [We can hardly doubt that this little dissertation on 
educational values is an echo of the sayings of the preceptor.] 
Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays (afternoon of the latter 
excepted) are engaged in our common classical studies ; ditto 
Thursday and Friday, and Saturday in the forenoon. Wednesday 
afternoons in every week are devoted to declamation. From this 
pleasing exercise no scholar is excepted. I begin to get a little 
acquainted with Latin. Have progressed as far as the fiftieth page 
in the Epitome. Write Latin from Clark's Introduction every 
Thursday afternoon. Also practice writing one hour every day on 
Wrifford's plan, under the direction of a writing master from the 
divinity college. For absence, tardiness, and for every detected 
foible our names are entered on the monitor's bill, with the charges 
respectively annexed, which is shown to the Preceptor at the end 
of the term, and we are obliged to give satisfactory reasons for our 
remissness in these particulars, etc. This relation will at once con- 
vince you that I have biit little leisure." ^ 

How delightfully vague is that " etc." In the literary slang 
of our day, it is, indeed, a little touch. 

The charges referred to may have been actual money 
items. At Nazareth Hall, a little earlier, there was a regu- 
lar system of fines : " A farthing for talking at meals, a ha' 
penny for falling on the floor, Id. for tearing a leaf out of a 
book, 2d. for telling a lie, ?>d. for an oath. " ^ 

Perhaps one chief cause of the dissatisfaction with Prin- 
cipal Adams may be found in the very intensity of his 
devotion to the religious side of the school's activities. Since 
his time, the institution may not have been less religious in 

^ The story of John Adams, pp. 90-92. \ 

2 Reichel, Nazareth Hall, p. 149. 



266 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

reality ; but its purely religious aspect has been rather less 
conspicuous and its emphasis upon classical scholarship 
rather more marked. Mr. Osgood Johnson's short term in 
the principalship, from 1833 to 1837, is remembered as a 
time of almost religious devotion to the finest things in the 
classical studies. 

Then followed, 1837-71, the long and notable career 
of Principal Samuel H. Taylor, which many men not yet 
old recall with the warmth of personal affection. " The 
spirit of Taylor," wrote the Rev. William E. Park, " calls up 
that of Pearson. They stand confronting each other like 
the two towers of a suspension bridge. . . . There was 
not in the soul of Taylor much of the low material of scep- 
ticism ; ... he was emphatically a man of faith, made up 
of many faiths. A strong underlying belief in the possi- 
bilities of human nature ; a deep sense of that which the 
scholar can be made to be ; a reliance upon the power of 
correct habits ; a thorough, heartfelt, unaffected belief in the 
efficacy of classical literature as the great educating force, 
with a partial failure to appreciate the developing power of 
other studies ; a boundless confidence in his own ability to 
instruct, causing some neglect in his oversight of the work of 
his subordinates, combined to make this remarkable man." ^ 

The first President Dwight holds a place of no small 
importance in the history of American literature and of 
American theology. His fame, however, rests chiefly upon 
his contribution to American education. The greatness of 
his service to Yale College is universally recognized, but 
little stress has been laid upon his career as an academy 
instructor. This aspect of his many-sided activity calls for 
notice not only because of its importance in the development 
of our secondary education, but also because of its intimate 
connection with his later work in the college, to which 
reference has already been made. 

The grandson of Jonathan Edwards and first cousin of 

1 Earlier annals of Phillips Academy, pp. 49-50. Cf. Horace E. 
Scudder's estimate in Harper s Magazine, LV., pp. 565-568. 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 267 

Aaron Burr might be expected to rise above the common- 
place. But Timothy Dwight must have been a superhuman 
being, if we may judge from the eulogies of his disciples. His 
manners and his personal presence are described as wonder- 
fully winning and impressive. He was an orator of inde- 
scribable persuasiveness. His memory was phenomenal; 
his vigor of thought so great that ordinary men found their 
strength gone at the mere contemplation of his achievements. 
He learned the alphabet at one lesson. At the age of six, 
the Latin grammar was kept from him for his own good. 
But he got hold of a copy, and twice went through it on the 
sly, as Jack Horner might have eaten the spoils of his two 
thumbs. He might easily have been ready for college at 
the age of eight, but was made to v/ait till he was thirteen. 
At seventeen he was graduated and became master of the 
Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven. ^ From nineteen 
to twenty-five he was tutor in the college, where he gained 
a prodigious influence over his students. He was one of the 
Yale literary group, and matched Trumbull's McFingal with 
his own Conquest of Canaan. At different times during 
the disturbance caused by the Kevolutionary War, when the 
college was scattered, students resorted to him for instruc- 
tion at places remote from New Haven. He entered the 
Christian ministry and became chaplain of a brigade in 
General Putnam's division of the Continental army. His 
sermons and daily ministrations gained for him great influ- 
ence in the army. He made the acquaintance of Washing- 
ton, who honored him with courteous attentions. Later he 
became a member of the Massachusetts legislature, where, 
to addition to other services, his Yale eloquence stemmed 
the tide that was running against a proposed appropriation 
for Harvard, and secured the adoption of the bill.^ Such 
was the man who in 1783 was settled over the parish of 

^ So in his biography ; but the records of the school do not bear out the 
statement, and the point is still in doubt. 

2 Samuel Phillips was in the state senate at this time, and he and Dwight 
came into close relations with each other. 



268 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Greenfield, in Connecticut, and soon thereafter added to his 
pastorate the conduct of the Greenfield Hill Academy. 

If the eulogies seem exaggerated, Timothy Dwight must 
at the least have been a very remarkable man to have made 
the exaggeration so unanimous. From one point of view, 
we may regard him as the noblest after-development of the 
Great Awakening. The finer educational impulses of that 
wave of religious enthusiasm came out at their best in the 
life of this man. He had close affinities, too, with those 
choice spirits of the earlier academy movement in England. 
One writer speaks of his " universal thirst for knowledge ; " 
his "unbounded love of knowledge in every form." This 
was a true academy trait, from Milton down. In his tutor 
days he had given a great impetus to the study of rhet- 
oric at the college. He plunged into Newton's Frincijna. 
In his Greenfield Hill Academy he carried his pupils forward 
in their studies with a fine disregard of all formal metes 
and bounds. He conducted some of them well on through 

O 

the studies of a college course, and he taught them subjects 
not found in the ordinary college course of that day. 

One of his biographers adds that, " In his school he 
adopted to a considerable degree, one part of the Lancas- 
terian mode of instruction ; making it extensively the duty 
of the older scholars, who were competent, to hear the 
recitations of the younger." ^ Another noteworthy charac- 
teristic of the school at Greenfield Hill was the fact, to 
which reference has already been made, that it was co-edu- 
cational. President Dwight is justly regarded as one of the 
pioneers in the education of women. It was with him a 
matter of principle. He firmly believed, in opposition to th« 
prevailing opinion of the time, that women had minds equal 
to those of men in their capacity for education. Even before 
he went to Greenfield, he had conducted a school for both 
sexes at Northampton. He had a high appreciation of 
feminine excellence, and it is said that he greatly loved the 
company of refined and intelligent women. 

1 Memoir, prefixed to his Theology, p. 17. 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 269 

He gave freely of his time to the conduct of the academy, 
putting in his six hours daily at the school house as regu- 
larly as any teacher. At the same time he was discharging 
the duties of his pastorate, preparing his system of theology, 
exercising a wide hospitality, cultivating a large garden 
with his own hands, and composing in verse for recreation. 
Young people flocked to his academy not only from New 
England, but also from the middle and southern states. It 
was carried on through the twelve years of his Greenfield 
pastorate, and during that time he taught more than one 
thousand pupils. Professor Denison Olmsted, who had 
been both student and tutor under President Dwight at 
Yale, said years afterward that in his youth he had been 
acquainted with men distinguished for their literary attain- 
ments and high intelligence whose education had all been 
acquired in this school at Greenfield Hill. 

In his poem entitled Greenfield Hill, Dr. Dwight gave a 
sketch of his school. It had been his purpose to imitate 
different British poets in the several portions of this poem — 
a design which he finally abandoned ; but the influence of 
Goldsmith is readily seen in the following passages : 

•' Where yonder humbler spire salutes the eye, 
It's vane slow turning in the liquid sky, 
Where, in light gambols, healthy striplings sport, 
Ambitious learning builds her outer court ; 
A grave preceptor, there, her usher stands, 
And rules, without a rod, her little bands. 
Some half-grown sprigs of learning grac'd his brow : 
Little he knew, though much lie wish'd to know, 
Inchanted hung o'er Virgil's honeyed lay, 
And smiled to see desipieut Horace play ; 
Glean'd scraps of Greek ; and curious, trac'd afar, 
Through Pope's clear glass, the bright Mseonian star. 
Yet oft his students at his wisdom star'd. 
For many a student to his side repair'd, 
Surpriz'd, they heard him Dihvorth's knots untie, 
And tell, what lands beyond tlie Atlantic lie." 

" Many his faults ; his virtues small and few; 
Some little good he did, or strove to do ; 



270 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Laborious still, he taught the earlj raind, 
And urg'd to manners meek, and thoughts refin'd ; 
Truth he impress'd, and every virtue prais'd ; 
While infant eyes, in wondering silence, gaz'd." 

The south was not lacking in eminent academy instruc- 
tors, one of whom, Moses Waddel, established a remarkable 
school at Willington, South Carolina, in 1804 Mr. Meri- 
wether has gathered together much interesting information 
with reference to this institution. Architecturally, the 
establishment must have been a rude and diminutive pro- 
totype of the University of Virginia. 

" Instead of large, luxurious dormitories for the students, were 
built little log huts, with chimneys of wood usually, but sometimes 
of brick. The students were encouraged to build these themselves. 
The whole formed ' a street shaded by majestic oaks, and com- 
posed entirely of log huts, varying in size from six to sixteen feet 
square. . . . The street was about forty yards wide and the houses 
ten or twelve ranged on the sides, either built by the students 
themselves or by architects hired by them.' The common price 
was five dollars for a house, ' on front row, waterproof, and easily 
chinked. . . In the suburbs were several other buildings of the 
same kind erected by literary recluses . . . who could not endure 
the din of the city at play-time — at play-time, we say, for there 
was no din in it in study hours. At the head of the street stood 
the academy, differing in nothing from the other buildings but in 
size, and the number of its rooms.' There were two rooms in this, 
one for the primary pupils, while ' the larger was the recitation 
room of Dr. Waddel himself, the prayer-room, court-room, and 
general convocation room for all matters concerning the school. 
It was without seats and just large enough to contain one hundred 
and fifty boys standing erect, close pressed, and leave a circle of 
six feet diameter at the door for jigs and cotillons at the teachers' 
regular soirees every Monday morning.' " 

Dr. Waddel conducted this academy for fifteen years, 
when he withdrew to become president of the University of 
Georgia. During this period he had among his pupils a 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 271 

surprising number of young men who rose to high position 
in after years. He prepared John C. Calhoun and Judge 
A. B. Longstreet to enter the junior class at Yale ; and 
rendered a similar service to Governor Patrick Noble, who 
went to the junior class at Princeton, and to George 
McDuffie — - governor, senator, and mighty orator — whom 
he sent to the junior class at the University of South 
Carolina. William H. Crawford, who in 1824 came near to 
the presidency of the United States, was another of his 
students, and the list of eminent names might be greatly 
extended. 

The master was strict in discipline and did not spare the 
rod. He insisted upon thorough work and steady attention 
to business. His students, some of whom had grown to 
manhood before they entered his school, respected him and 
loved him, and the memories of Willington were held by 
them in the highest reverence. 

It would seem that Dr. Waddel was particularly mindful 
of individual differences among his pupils. He did not 
neglect to stimulate the brighter boys as well as to urge on 
the backward and negligent. Perhaps this is one reason 
why so many of fine natural abilities came to him, and why 
they made the most of their talents when they went out 
into active life. 

" George Carey prepared a thousand lines of Virgil for a Monday's 
recitation when at Wilhngton. The Virgil class was too large, and 
its members were of such unequal grade, that the teacher announced 
that it would be divided on the basis of the work done by each one 
by the following Monday, and it was under this stimuhis that 
Carey did his work. George McDuffie excelled this intellectual 
feat a year or so later with one thousand two hundred and twelve 
lines of Horace. He was poor, and was boarded gratuitously in 
the family of Mr, William Calhoun. His abihty was first recog- 
nized by James Calhoun, who aided him in his attendance at the 
South Carolina College. He was a very hard student and is said 
* to have devoured his Latin grammar in three weeks.* " ^ 

1 Meriwether, Higher education in South Carolina, ch. 2. 



272 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Something should be said of the instruction which was 
going on in the mean time in the old grammar schools that 
still survived. The Autohiography of the first president of 
the University of North Carolina, the Eev. Joseph Caldwell, 
D.D., gives us details of the daily routine in some New 
Jersey schools just after the Eevolution, and shows inciden- 
tally the improvement of methods which came in from 
Scotland by way of Princeton College. 

" I think," he says, "it was in the year 1784, when I was eleven 
or twelve years of age, a Latin grammar was wanted, and upon in- 
quiry none was to be had. . . . One of the boys . . . having one on 
hand that was nearly worn out, gave it to me. , . . Tlie grammar 
was instantly and eagerly commenced, and as eagerly prosecuted 
till finished. Corderius, Selecta e Veteri, Selecta e Profanis, 
Csesar, Greek Grammar, Greek Testament, Mai]''s Introduction, 
Virgil, and perhaps some other books, followed in as quick succes- 
sion as intent application could compass them. [This was in the 
grammar school of Princeton College.] Before my entering college, 
our family removed to Newark, where my studies were continued 
under Dr. McWhorter. The school at Princeton was made an 
object of special regulation, and sometimes of personal attention by 
Dr. Witherspoon [president of the college]. From this circum- 
stance it certainly had singular advantages in comparison with 
other academies. The modes of instruction, and the exercises in 
which we were trained, were derived immediately from Scotland. 
Of their superior efficacy T was made sensible by the change. Dr. 
McWhorter was undoubtedly among the best teachers in the 
country, but in the class with which I was united, everything 
came so easily in my preparations that it was almost like sport, 
while the rest of the class appeared to meet as much difficulty as 
they could well vanquish. This difference proceeded from the 
different methods of teaching, and I was perfectly convinced of it 
at the time." ^ 

A foot-note is appended to this account, which adds the 
following information : 

1 Autobiogrnphy of Joseph Caldwell, p. 16. 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 273 

'' In Mair's Introduction, it was the custom at Newark to write 
down no more than two or three of the longer sentences in good 
Latin, as a weekly task on Saturday. But in Princeton we were 
required to come prepared every forenoon, while we were in that 
book, to read the whole of one of those sentences in English, and 
then to repeat it with equal promptness in correct Latin ; and our 
daily appointment was two or three pages. Nor was this all. 
For we then closed our Looks, and the instructor would read to us 
long portions of the English, and we must give the Latin of them 
without mistake in word or grammatical construction, from begin- 
ning to end. We were not permitted to do this tardily, for not 
only if any one made a mistake, but if he did not move directly 
forward in enunciating the translation of the sentence put to him, 
the next below was to pronounce it forthwith, and if successful, 
was to take his place. To a student trained to this vigor and 
promptness of thought and action, what difficulty could there be in 
writing down two or three sentences in corrected Latin as a weekly 
exercise, as was the custom at Newark ] We wrote Latin versions 
weekly at Princeton also, but we had nothing but English sentences 
given, and we selected the Latin words and phraseology for our- 
selves. This taught us the use of words agreeably to their true 
classical import. Dr. Witherspoon had various methods of drilling 
a class. One was to run a verb, as it was called, through all the 
successive tenses and moods in the first person, then in the second 
person, the third, and so on ; and to repeat the imperative, the in- 
finitive, the gerunds, supines, and participles. This was done in 
both voices. Another exercise consisted in comparing an adjective, 
and keeping up the repetition of the degrees, through all the gen- 
ders and cases in both numbers. A third method of giving us skill 
was to carry an adjective through the cases and numbers in company 
with a masculine substantive, then with a feminine, and then with 
a neuter. A fourth exercise was to come prepared daily with a 
page or two of vocables, so as to give the English for the Latin, and 
the Latin for the English. In another instance, he would select a 
Latin verb, and call upon each of us, successively, to give a com- 
pound with the meaning, till all the compounds were exhausted. 
A sixth exercise was made out by taking some verb, as ago, having 
various idiomatic imports according to its connection, and we were 
required to give examples of its idiomatic uses. This note is sub- 

18 



274 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

joined evidently not for all readers, but as a suggestion to teachers. 
But these are by no means all the methods of drilling to which we 
were called. When we first commenced any one of them, we were 
slow ; but the quickness to which we presently attained, was evidence 
of the improvement consequent upon such practice. The most effi- 
cient cause of the high degree of perfection at which scholars 
arrive in European grammar schools and scientific institutions, is to 
be seen in the diversity of exercises devised and continually prac- 
ticed through the whole course of education." 

Dr. Caldwell, it may be added, was himself a worthy rep- 
resentative of that long line of educational missionaries 
which Princeton College was sending out to the south 
and west. 

The post-revolutionary history of the Boston Latin School, 
or at least the earlier half of that history, comes in for some 
notice here. The school was reopened a few months after 
the town was evacuated by the British. But during the first 
generation of its later career it passed through troublous 
times. The discipline was harsh and ineffective and the 
instruction of an inferior quality. The published reminis- 
cences of the daily life of the school about 1811, when Ealph 
Waldo Emerson was one of its pupils, describe a most de- 
plorable state of affairs. The rattan was in use much of the 
time, its operation being interspersed with altercations 
between the master and the boys undergoing punishment. 
The master indulged in a sardonic pedagogue humor, illus- 
trating the rules of grammar with strokes of the rod, or 
improvising in doggerel rhyme, 

" If I see any boy catching flies, 
I '11 whip him till he cries. 
And make the tears run out of his eyes; " 

or at another time, 

" If you '11 be good, I'll thank you ! 
If not, I '11 spank you!" 

The boys called him Sawney, and he had his own plenti- 
ful vocabulary of epithets to apply to them. The cramming 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 275 

and coaching for public examinations, by which this master 
sought to conceal the defects of his daily instruction, was of 
the most shameless sort. 

Mr. Emerson told of the ultimate downfall of this regime : 

" One day when [the master referred to] was giving orders to 
the boys on one side of the School there was a sudden shout on 
the opposite side. He turned around amazed to them, and in- 
stantly the boys on the eastern side roared aloud. I have never 
known any rebellion like this in the English Schools to surpass 
it. I tlnnk the School was immediately dismissed, and I think 

Mr. [ ] never entered it again. I remember that on the 

following morning the prayer was simply these words : * Fatlier, 
forgive them, for they know not what they do.' " -^ 

A young man, hardly out of college, Mr. Benjamin 
Apthorp Gould, was then called to the mastership, and 
under his rule the school was soon brought to a high 
state of efficiency. He left his mark on the organization of 
studies and instruction for half a century. 

Mr. Gould's own account of the school as it was in the 
eighteen-hundred-twenties is one of the most explicit state- 
ments that we have of the actual school management of 
that time. It is well worth reproducing as a whole ; but in 
the interest of brevity only a portion of it is presented here : 

" The scholars are distributed into six separate apartments, under 
the care of the same number of instructors ; viz. a Principal, or 
Head Master, a Sub-Master, and four Assistants. For admission, 
boys must be at least nine years old ; able to read correctly and 
with fluency, and to write running hand ; they must know all the 
stops, marks, and abbreviations, and have sufficient knowledge ot 
English grammar to parse common sentences in prose. . . . The 
regular course of instruction lasts five years ; and the School is 
divided into five classes according to the time of entrance. 

" When a class has entered, the boys commence the Latin 
Grammar all together, under the eye of the Principal ; where they 
continue until he has become in some degree acquainted with their 

1 The text of these reminiscences is given in the Catalogue of 1886, 
previously referred to. 



276 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

individual characters and capacities. As they change places at 
each recitation, those boys will naturally rise to the upper part of 
the class, who are most industrious, or who learn with the greatest 
facility. After a time a division of from twelve to fifteen boys is 
taken oif from the upper end of the class ; after a few days more, 
another division is in like manner taken off; and so on until the 
whole class is separated into divisions of equal number, it having 
been found that from twelve to fifteen is the most convenient 
number to drill together. 

"... The class, thus arranged for the year, is distributed 
among the assistant teachers, a division to each. ... As writing is 
not taught in the School, the younger classes for the first two or 
three years are dismissed at eleven o'clock, an hour before school is 
done, that they may attend a Avriting school. . . . 

" When this distribution is made, the boys continue for the 
year in the apartment in which tliey are first placed, unless some 
particular reason should exist for changing them ; or when the 
higher divisions attend the Sub-Master for instruction in Geography 
and Mathematics, to whom these departments are committed. 

"This method of studying each branch separately, is adopted 
throughout the school. The same individuals do not study Latin 
one part of the day, and Greek the other, but each for a month at 
a time ; and so with mathematics, except that the lesson for the 
evening, which is usually a written exercise, or a portion of Latin 
or Greek to be committed to memory, is in a different department 
from the studies of the day. . . . 

"At the close of every month the boys in each department 
undergo a rigid examination in all the studies of that month. . . . 
The rank of each scholar and his seat for the succeeding month are 
determined by this examination, unless an account of places for 
each recitation of the month has been kept, in which case they are 
determined by a general average. [The monitor and his ' bill ' 
are referred to briefly.] 

" Boys commence with Adam's Latin Grammar, in learning which 
they are required to commit to memory much that they do not 
understand at the time, as an exercise of memory, and to accustom 
them to labor [!]•" [Some further apology is offered for this prac- 
tice.] " It takes from six to eight months for a boy to commit to 
memory all that is required in Adam's Grammar ; but those who 
do master the grammar completely, seldom find any difficulty after- 



TEACHERS AND TEACHING 



277 



wards in committing to memory whatever may be required of 
them. ..." [Indeed, who can doubt iti] 

" The examples under the rules of syntax are the first exercises 
in parsing. The Liber Primus is the first book after the grammar. 
No more of this is taken for a lesson than can be parsed thoroughly. 
This and tlie grammar form the studies of the first year." 

The studies of the remaining years of the course are given 
as follows : 

Second Tear. 



Graeciae Historiae Epitome. 

Viri Romae. 

Phaedri Fabulae (Burman's text, 
with Englisli notes). 

Cornelius JN^epos. 

Ovid's Metamorphoses (by Wil- 
ly motte). 



(Scansion, rules of prosody, 
" capping verses," etc.) 

Valpy's Chronology of Ancient 
and English History. 

Dana's Latin Tutor (for com- 
position). 

Tooke's Pantheon. 



Greek Grammar. 
Caesar's Commentaries. 
Electa ex Ovidio et Tibullo. 
Delectus Sententiarum Grae- 
carum. 



Third Tear. 

Col. Gr. Miiiora, Sallust, Virgil. 
(Written translations in Eng- 
lish.) 



Fourth and 

Latin Tutor, continued ; fol- 
lowed by 
Valpy's Elegantise Latinse. 
Bradley's Prosody. 
Cicero's select orations, De 
Ofhciis, De Senectute, and 
De Amicitia. 
Horace Exp., Juvenal and Persius 
Expur. 

[Does the longer abbre- 
viation imply that tlie 
expurgation went fur- 

^ Other books of which use was 
Schrevelius' Greek Lexicon, Hedericus 



Fifth Tears. 

ther in the latter than 
in the former case 1 .] 

Greek Primitives. 

Xenophon's Anabasis. 

Maittaire's Homer. 

Greek Testament. 

Wyttenbach's Greek Historians. 

Geography (Worcester's). 

Arithmetic (Colburn, Lecroix). 

Geometry (Euclid). 

Trigonometry, and its uses. 

Algebra (Euler), etc.^ 

made were Neiluou's Greek exercises, 
i, Scapula, Morell's Thesaurus, Walker's 



278 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Mr. Gould gives a very interesting, detailed account of 
the methods of instruction in Latin prose composition, from 
the second year on ; in composition in verse, fourth and 
fifth years ; and in arithmetic, in the same period. Pupils 
were required to make their own rules in arithmetic, and 
in both arithmetic and geometry the blackboard was freely 
used. 

" On Saturdays the whole School comes together in the hall for 
declamation. . . . This is the only day in the week in which all 
the instructors and scholars unite in any religious or literary 
exercise." ^ 

It is evident that in the Latin school, under Principal 
Gould, as in the grammar school at Princeton, under the 
oversight of Dr. Witherspoon, close attention was paid to 
the manner and the matter of instruction, and the school 
gave some quickening to the spiritual life of its pupils. 
But such was not generally the case with the classical 
instruction of the time. There are numerous indications 
that in many of the schools it was flat and unprofitable in 
the extreme. 

NOTE 

The books referred to in this chapter call for no further comment. So 
much Hght is thrown upon our educational liistory by well-edited " Lives " 
of our old-time schoolmasters and school-makers, that it is pity we have 
not more works available of this sort. 

Classical Key, Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, Adam's Roman Antiquities, 
Eutick's and Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary — a sufficiently extensive list. 
Most of these are mere names to present-day teachers. 
1 Jenks, Historical sketch, pp. 60-64. 



2% 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC CONTROL 

We have seen how French influence was at work, along 
with forces native to America, in the making of early state 
systems of education The idea of an education for the 
people under the fostering care and general oversight of 
the civil authorities, was now abroad in the land, and was 
finding widespread application in our governmental systems. 
But the several schools through which our state governments 
carried on their educational work were not generally under 
the immediate management of public corporations. 

The characteristic type of academy administration, as has 
been shown, is that carried on through a board of trustees 
who are not themselves teachers in the institution which 
they control, who have no pecuniary interest in that insti- 
tution, and who fill vacancies in their own number by a 
process of co-optation. This form of organization is equally 
characteristic of the American college, from the time that a 
distinctly American type of college comes into view. 

With all of its obvious advantages, this system provides 
no means by which the public, in case of prevalent dissatis- 
faction with the management of an institution, can readily 
effect changes in accordance with its desires. This may 
or may not be regarded as a disadvantage of the system, 
according to the point of view of the one passing judgment 
upon it. The historical fact which concerns us here is that 
a great wave of objection to this system swept over our 
country, which resulted in the formation of educational 
institutions under direct public control. The earlier prod- 
uct of this movement was the state university. A later 



280 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

product was the public high school. "We shall get a better 
understanding of the movement as a whole if we con- 
sider first that aspect of it out of which came our state 
universities. 

The fact has already been noted that, about the time of 
the Eevolution, there was growing up a widespread distrust 
of the colleges as then conducted. This took many forms, and 
was shared by men of the most diverse political and religious 
convictions. But it all came back virtually to this : That 
no one of the colleges fully answered the public need as 
regards higher education. Every one of them was the col- 
lege of a faction, of a section, or of a sect, within the 
commonwealth, and failed therefore to be a college of the 
commonwealth in its entirety. The democratic spirit, which 
had been rising, very slowly, since the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, and the interest in civic affairs, which 
increased rapidly as the Eevolution drew on, both tended to 
accentuate this feeling of distrust. It was much more pro- 
nounced in the case of some colleges than in that of others, 
but none of them seems to have escaped it altogether. 

As this feeling rose to self-consciousness, there appeared 
two ways in which it might find adequate expression ; two 
ways in which colleges might be made to answer the com- 
mon need in this matter of higher education : First, the 
commonwealth might, through the agencies of government, 
assume and exercise the right of visitation in the existing 
institutions, or even, if need be, compel those colleges to 
submit to changes in their charters which should render 
them more serviceable to society in its organic wholeness 
and unity ; or secondly, it might ignore the existing col- 
leges, regarding their case as hopeless, and proceed to erect 
new institutions so organized and administered as to meet 
the highest demands of public responsibility. The legal 
status of "educational corporations was not then so well 
defined as now ; and the constitution of the United States, 
with its provision safeguarding the obligation of contracts, 
was not yet in existence. So it is not strange that the 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC CONTROL 281 

first of these two courses seemed mucli more practicable 
than the other. We shall see that it was first tried, in a 
very thorough manner ; and not till it had signally failed, 
did the movement for the establishment of state universities 
acquire any sort of headway. 

The question of public control is to be kept separate from 
that of public support. Yet the two are intimately con- 
nected. Institutions of learning have more than once been 
led to accept the larger responsibility, through the difficulty 
of maintenance as representatives of a party or faction. 

Even before the Eevolution, the two possible courses of 
procedure had both been distinctly considered, and attempts 
had been made to carry both into execution, but with no 
sort of success in either case. These colonial projects are 
worthy of consideration, for they help us to understand the 
true state of the case when the newly liberated states began 
to deal with this problem. 

Efforts were made at different times to secure for the colo- 
nial governments of Massachusetts and ISTew Jersey, or- for 
the English crown, a larger participation in the management 
of Harvard and Princeton Colleges. But the most notable 
attempt in colonial times to subject an educational close 
corporation to direct governmental control, was made in 
Connecticut. In the middle of the eighteenth century, 
Yale College was under the headship of President Clap, a 
man of marked ability, but personally unpopular. The 
conflict between the " New Lights " and the " Old Lights " 
was then raging in Connecticut. Yale College was a strong- 
hold of the earlier orthodoxy, though it gradually drew 
nearer to the New Light party. It seems, under President 
Clap's leadership, to have gained to a large extent the ill- 
will of both sides in the controversy. Partly in consequence 
of this hostility, the annual donations to the college from 
the colonial treasury were discontinued after 1754. It is 
said that from 1758 to 1763, " four distinct appeals were 
made to the legislature, through the fellows, the graduates 
and the students of the College," to inquire into and rectify 



282 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

abuses in the management of the institution. One act of 
the college authorities was represented as being, "an in- 
fringement on the order and rights of the regular churches, 
. . . and a daring affront to legislative power." ^ Finally 
the trouble culminated in a formidable memorial, presented 
to the legislature in 1763. 

In this it was declared that the general assembly was the 
founder of the college, inasmuch as it had granted the 
original charter, in 1701 ; and in that charter had bestowed 
a grant of about sixty pounds sterling, besides making subse- 
quent donations in money and lands. The general assembly 
sitting in the year 1763, it was asserted, possessed the right 
of visitation under the common law, as successor to the 
founder ; and there was need that this right be exercised in 
the then present emergency, to preserve the good order of 
the college in several respects, and particularly as regards 
orthodoxy in religion. 

President Clap himself undertook the reply to this memo- 
rial. He declared that the legislature had the same author- 
ity over the college as over other persons and estates in the 
colony ; but that it did not possess the right of visitation, 
because the act of incorporation and the gift of public funds 
which accompanied it did not found the institution. It 
had existed in fact before it possessed a charter, and dona- 
tions of books, money, and land had already been made to 
it. The founders were those ministers who had made a 
large and formal donation of books for its establishment. 
This fact was acknowledged in the act of 1701, which recog- 
nized the institution as already founded, and merely gave 
the trustees legal authorization to proceed with the erection 
of the school. Besides, the preamble of the charter of 1745 
expressly declared that the first trustees had founded the 
schooL It was shown that it would be detrimental to the 
orderly management of the college if some body of visitors, 
other than the trustees, were set up, to whom any aggrieved 
person might appeal from a decision of the ordinary college 
1 Clews, op. cit., p. 159. 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC CONTROL 283 

authorities. And as regards orthodoxy, it was urged that 
the president and fellows had taken better precautions 
than might be expected continuously from any other body 
of visitors which the legislature might constitute.^ 

This reply was backed up with ample citations from 
the most eminent legal authorities. It is evident that it 
commanded the respect of thoughtful men in the colony, as 
it has of competent jurists of later times. It put an end to 
the efforts to secure legislative interference in the affairs of 
the college. And it may be added that substantially the 
same ground as that taken by President Clap was taken by 
the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dartmouth 
College case, half a century later. 

The other possible way to public control, that of founding 
new institutions directly responsible to the government, 
was clearly set forth before the colonies became independent, 
and a strong effort was made to have this plan put on its 
trial. It happened in connection with the founding of 
King's College, in New York. The funds first secured for 
the establishment of this institution were raised under the 
authority of the colonial legislature. When the time came 
to begin the actual organization of the college, it was pro- 
posed that it be established by royal charter. The corpora- 
tion of Trinity Church offered to bestow on the institution 
a tract of land, attaching certain ecclesiastical conditions to 
the gift. It was proposed that this gift be accepted and the 
conditions be embodied in the charter. The plan aroused 
violent opposition, which was led by William Livingston. 

This gentleman was a prominent member of the well- 
known New York family of that name, the proprietors of 
the Livingston Manor. He had been educated at Yale 
College. It is said that, a few years previous to the time 
we are considering, there were in the whole province of New 
York only ten persons, not in holy orders, who had received 

1 The text of this argument has, I believe, never been printed. I have 
followed President Clap's own summary of it as given in his Annals or history 
of Yale- College. 



284 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

a collegiate education ; and four of these were the brothers 
Livingston. William Livingston was an able lawyer, a 
moderate Presbyterian, an uncompromising patriot. Like 
many American Presbyterians of his time, he was strenu- 
ously opposed to any union of church and state. He be- 
came one of the most vigorous opponents of the movement 
for the establishment of an American episcopate. His 
aristocratic antecedents did not prevent him from develop- 
ing at an early period a strongly democratic spirit. He 
removed to New Jersey, and when that colony became a 
state, he was elected its first governor under the new order 
of things. -By repeated election he was continued in this 
ofl&ce up to the time of his death, in 1790. 

I have spoken thus particularly of G-overnor Livingston 
for the reason that the earliest distinct American utter- 
ance in favor of state control of the higher education which 
I have been able to find, appears in some of his writings. 
At the time when the first steps were taken toward secur- 
ing a royal charter for King's College, Mr. Livingston was 
editing The Independent Rejiector in the city of New York. 
This was a four-page folio, devoted to the discussion of vari- 
ous questions of public interest. It served as a sort of period- 
ical pamphlet, such as the eighteenth century abounded in. 
The greater part of the weekly issue of this sheet seems 
to have been written by Livingston himself, though some 
articles were undoubtedly contributed by various members 
of his coterie. The paper continued for only fifty-two num- 
bers, in 1752-53. It treated of many topics, but is especially 
noteworthy because of what it had to say on the subject of 
the new college. 

■^ This topic was first taken up in the seventeenth number 
of the paper. " The true Use of Education," says the writer, 
"is to qualify Men for the different Employments of Life, to 
which it may please God to call them. 'Tis to improve 
their Hearts and Understandings, to infuse a public Spirit 
and Love of their Country ; to inspire them with the Princi- 
ples of Honor and Probity ; with a fervent Zeal for Liberty, 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC CONTROL 285 

and a diffusive Benevolence for Mankind ; and in a Word 
to make them more extensively serviceable to the Common- 
Wealth." 

He insists that the kind of educa^tion that is criven will 
inevitably affect the common weal : that no sort of higher 
education can possibly be a merely private concern. This 
is one of the most striking features of his argument. Again 
and again, in later issues, he comes back to this central 
thought, and hammers it in with all his might. 

In the eighteenth number, he proceeds " to offer a few 
Arguments, ... to evince the Necessity and Importance of 
constituting our College upon a Basis the most catholic, 
generous and free." "The extensive Influence of such a 
Seminary," he says, " I have already shewn in my last Paper. 
And have we not reason to fear the worst Effects of it, where 
none but the Principles of one Persuasion are taught, and all 
others depressed and discountenanced ? " Such an institu- 
tion he calls a " Party-College." A college erected in the 
interest of any party is a menace to public interests, and 
most of all a college erected in the interest of any ecclesias- 
tical body. 

In the nineteenth number, he continues the discussion of 
the dangers attendant upon the incorporation of the college 
by royal charter. In the twentieth he proposes his alterna- 
tive for this procedure. "I would first establish it as a 
Truth," says Mr. Livingston, "that Societies have an indis- 
putable Eight to direct the Education of their youthful 
Members. " This sounds strangely like an utterance of La 
Chalotais in the Essai d'education nationale, ten years later 
than this. But the idea was already abroad in France ; 
and it is possible that Mr. Livingston, who read French, 
may have been familiar with the advanced French thought 
of the time upon this subject. He continues, " If ... it 
belongs to any to inspect the Education of Youth, it is the 
proper Business of the Public, with whose Happiness their 
future Conduct in Life is inseparably connected, and by whose 
Laws their relative Actions will be governed. . . . Let it [the 



286 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

college] not be made the Portion of a Party, or private Set of 
Men, but let it merit the Protection of the Public." Those 
who ask to be given direction of the higher education of the 
commonwealth, he adds, " ask no less considerable a Boon, 
than absolute universal Dominion." 

" Instead of a Charter," he goes on to say, " I would pro- 
pose, that the College be founded and incorporated by Act 
of Assembly, and that not only because it ought to be under 
the Inspection of the civil Authority ; but also, because such 
a Constitution will be more permanent, better endowed, less 
liable to Abuse, and more capable of answering its true End." 
The twenty-first number of the Independent Bejlector is 
perhaps the most important of all, for in this a complete 
plan for the organization of a college under public control 
is offered in outline. In the interest of brevity, only por- 
tions of two or three of the eleven sections under which 
this plan is presented, will be considered here. 

It is proposed : 

" First : That all the Trustees be nominated, appointed, and 
incorporated by the Act [of Assembly], and that whenever an Avoid- 
ance among them shall happen, the same be reported by the Cor- 
poration to the next Sessions of Assembly, and such Vacancy be 
supplied by Legislative Act. That they hold their Ofl&ces only at 
the good Pleasure of the Governor, Council and General Assemb]}^ 
And that no Person of any Protestant Denomination be, on Account 
of his religious Persuasion, disqualified for sustaining any Office in 
the College." 

" The Fifth Article I propose is, that no religious Profession 
in particular be established in the College ; . . . 

" To this most important Head, I should think proper to subjoin, 

" Sixthly : That the whole College be every Morning and 
Evening convened to attend public Prayers, to be performed by the 
President, or in his Absence, by either of the Fellows ; and that such 
Forms be prescribed and adhered to as all Protestants can freely 
join in." 

We see that this radical innovator did not go so far in the 
way of a separation between education and religion, as cur- 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC CONTROL 287 

rent practice had gone long before the close of the nine- 
teenth century. But his early advocacy of non-sectarian 
religious instruction for an educational institution is worthy 
of remembrance. By way of illustration, he even devoted 
one number of his paper to a form of prayer which he had 
devised for this purpose, composed almost wholly of pas- 
sages from the Bible. 

This remarkable series of papers culminated, in the 
twenty-second number, in an impassioned and declamatory 
appeal to the colonists to prevent the advocates of the 
charter college from accomplishing their purpose. By this 
time a great war of disputation had been stirred up. The 
taverns, the coffee-houses, and the newspapers, were alive 
with the subject. The objectors were unsuccessful in the 
attempt to prevent the issuance of the charter. But after 
the college had been incorporated, they brought in a bill 
in the legislature, providing for the establishment of a 
rival institution, on the lines proposed in the Independent 
Reflector. But little is known of the fortunes of this bill ; 
but the upshot of the whole affair was a compromise, under 
which only half of the money which had been raised by lot- 
teries for a college went to the chartered institution, the 
remainder being used to build a pest house and a jail. Mr. 
Livingston raised his voice in jubilation over this result. 

So the two obvious methods of making the higher educa- 
tion a truly public education, had both been seriously pro- 
posed before the Ptevolution, but neither one of the two had 
as yet been fairly tried. Independence brought with it 
momentous changes, which were to have great influence in 
the shaping of our educational systems. When the war 
was over, the new states found themselves in possession of 
a great national domain in the new northwest. Historians 
have shown what a mighty influence this territory exercised 
in awakening the sense of nationality, and how important 
were its later bearings upon our political development. Its 
effects upon our educational development were hardly less 
marked. Here was a clear field for educational experiment. 



288 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Here were lands that could be set apart for educational pur- 
poses — an arrangement which tended to encourage the best 
sort of immigration. It is hardly surprising that under 
these circumstances the northwest became a favorite field 
for the building up of early state universities. 

We are now concerned, however, with those uncertain and 
painful efforts, in the states along the Atlantic, to make over 
the existing colleges into some sort of institution which 
should answer to the rising educational consciousness of our 
people. It is, perhaps, not generally known how many 
attempts were made in the legislatures of the new-born 
states to render the old colleges more directly responsible 
and ministrant to the whole commonwealth. Nine colleges 
had been incorporated and had entered upon a course of 
college instruction within the colonial period. Of these, at 
least six were more or less directly affected by this move- 
ment. 

The charter of the College of Philadelphia was revoked 
in 1779, and in its place was set up the University of Penn- 
sylvania, under public control. Ten years later, the older 
corporation was revived, and the two institutions existed in 
some fashion for two years, side by side. Then a com- 
promise was reached, the two were merged into one under 
the title of the University of Pennsylvania, and this was 
placed under the control of a close corporation. 

Yale College, after a long contest, yielded to public opinion, 
reinforced by its extreme need of financial aid. In 1792, 
eight of the chief officers of state were admitted, ex officio, to 
membership in its board of trustees ; and a considerable 
grant was then received from the state legislature. 

King's College, in New York, was greatly in disfavor 
while the Eevolution was in progress, and its Tory president, 
Dr. Cooper, was obliged to flee for his life. It has been 
shown that, after the war was over, a general state system 
of education was legislated into existence, with the college, 
now called Columbia, at its head. But serious difficulties 
were met with in the attempt to make the managing board 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC CONTROL 289 

of the college identical with the managing board of a state 
system of schools. Here again a compromise was reached, 
in 1787, under which public control was retained in the 
supervisory body, but the management of the college was 
committed to a self-perpetuating board of trustees. 

Harvard College was disturbed in 1812 by legislation 
affecting its Board of Overseers, which was forced upon the 
institution without regard to the protest of the Corporation. 
Two years later, however, the obnoxious act was repealed. 

But the most notable case of this sort, the case in which 
the movement reached its culmination and also its judicial 
determination, arose in connection with Dartmouth College, 
in the second decade of the century. In consequence of a 
long-drawn college controversy, in which the political parties 
within the state were ranged on opposite sides, the legislature 
of New Hampshire passed an act, June 27, 1816, declaring 
that " the college of the state may, in the opinion of the 
legislature, be rendered more extensively useful," and enact- 
ing accordingly " that the corporation, heretofore called and 
known by the name of the Trustees of Dartmouth College, 
shall ever hereafter be called and known by the name of the 
Trustees of Dartmouth University." This university was 
to be managed by a self-perpetuating board of trustees, over 
which there was placed a board of overseers consisting of 
certain civil officers ex officio, and other members appointed 
by the governor, and possessing full visitatorial rights, and 
power of veto on the acts of the trustees. 

The board of trustees of the college maintained that the 
legislature had no power of interference in their affairs, and 
carried the matter into the courts. The supreme court of 
the state of New Hampshire decided against the college. 
The case was then carried into the supreme court of the 
United States. Daniel Webster was of the counsel for the 
college, and his argument in this case added greatly to his 
fame as a constitutional lawyer. The opinion of the court 
was pronounced in February, 1819, by Chief Justice Mar- 
shall. The finding of the New Hampshire court was re- 

19 



290 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

versed. The decision was summarized in the following 
terms : 

" The charter granted by the British crown to the trustees of 
Dartmouth College, in I^ew Hampshire, in the year 1769, is a con- 
tract within the meaning of that clause of the constitution of the 
United States (Art. 1, s. 10) which declares that no state shall 
make any law impairing the obligation of contracts. The charter 
was not dissolved by the Eevolution. 

" An act of the State of I^qv^ Hampshire altering the charter 
without the consent of the corporation in a material respect is an 
act impairing the obligation of the charter, and is unconstitutional 
and void. 

" Under its charter Dartmouth College was a private and not a 
public corporation. That a corporation is established for purposes 
of general charity, or for education generally, does not, p^r se, make 
it a public corporation, liable to the control of the legislature." ^ 

It would be hard to overestimate the significance of this 
decision. Chancellor Kent said of it that it " did more than 
any other single act proceeding from the authority of the 
United States to throw an impregnable barrier around all 
rights and franchises derived from the grant of government, 
and to give solidity and inviolability to the literary, charit- 
able, religious, and commercial institutions of our country." 

It was, perhaps, an unmixed advantage to commercial 
establishments to have it settled once for all that a self- 
perpetuating, chartered institution is a private and not a 
public corporation, and so beyond the reach of governmental 
interference ; but when it came to educational establish- 
ments, this decision cut both ways. The conviction to 
which William Livingston had given utterance many years 
before — that an institution of higher education could not 
possibly be a private concern as regards its operation and 
influence — had come abroad and gained general currency. 
That an institution which embodied so momentous a public 
interest should be beyond the reach of public control 

^ The Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheaton 514. 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC CONTROL 291 

seemed to many a dangerous state of affairs. The decision 
in the Dartmouth College case put an end to efforts directed 
toward governmental regulation of educational close cor- 
porations ; but in so doing it turned the full force of this 
movement into that other possible course of governmental 
agency — namely, the establishment and maintenance of 
colleges and universities under full state control. 

An institution not under public control may be very 
susceptible to public influences ; and it would be hard to 
find such an institution so comfortably endowed, so irre- 
sponsible in spirit, and so firmly fixed in its own traditions, 
as to be wholly beyond the reach of public opinion. Our 
early colleges felt the movements going on about them, to 
which, in truth, they had largely contributed ; and little by 
little they introduced changes which brought them nearer 
to the people whom they served. In this way, the most of 
them warded off the danger which threatened them, of rival 
establishments founded and managed by the state. They 
widened their range of studies ; and they ceased to be in 
any special sense schools for the training of ministers, 
becoming instead general institutions of the higher learning. 

But the demand for universities under state control was 
more profound and far-reaching than was commonly sup- 
posed. We have seen that the University of Pennsylvania, 
and Columbia and Dartmouth Colleges, had each its brief 
term of service as a regular state institution. Other state 
universities soon began to take permanent shape. The 
movement was nearly simultaneous in the west and south. 
The influence of the south was dominant in the earlier days 
and that of the west at a later period. 

North Carolina, following Pennsylvania, included in its 
state constitution of 1776 the provision that, "All useful 
learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or 
more universities." In accordance with this provision, the 
state legislature erected a university in 1789, which began 
giving instruction in 1795. This institution, however, did 
not come under direct state control till 1821. South Caro- 



292 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

lina College, an institution under full state control, was 
established by legislative act in 1801, and opened in 1805. 
The long and varied efforts of Thomas Jefferson to secure 
the establishment of a university under public control in 
the Old Dominion, were crowned with success in 1819, the 
year in which the decision in the Dartmouth College case 
was handed down by the Supreme Court of the United 
States. This was an event of capital importance. Eepeated 
efforts had been made to transform William and Mary 
College into an institution which might fairly serve as the 
crowning member of a state system of education. But this 
was found at last to be impracticable, chiefly because of the 
fixed ecclesiastical character of the old foundation. 

The fact that the University of Virginia held the chief 
place in a well-thought-out plan of education, which was 
vitally connected with a democratic scheme of society, and 
the further fact that it was the cherished project of Thomas 
Jefferson, compelled the serious attention of the builders of 
new commonwealths. And the intrinsic character of the 
new institution was such that its establishment marked an 
epoch in our educational development. 

Important beginnings were making meanwhile in the 
new states of the Old Northwest, which culminated in the 
establishment of a strong state university in Michigan.^ 
Favorable circumstances affecting its external administra- 
tion, combined with excellences of internal management and 
instruction, gave to this institution a position of leadership 
among our state universities during the latter half of the 
nineteenth century. The states that were coming into 
being all through the century, with few exceptions, estab- 
lished such universities. Their erection soon came to be 
a matter of course in the new western commonwealths, 
the beginnings sometimes being made before the territorial 
status was outgrown. 

We may note by the way how differently the Dartmouth 
College case has affected the history of our commercial and 
1 Some of these beginnings are noted iu chapter X. 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC CONTROL 293 

industrial corporations. Since that decision was reached, 
the granting of governmental subsidies to privately man- 
aged educational institutions has fallen more and more into 
disfavor, as has been shown, and the movement toward 
public control of such institutions has gained a tremendous 
volume and headway. But, curiously enough, the relation 
of government to industry and commerce has not followed 
a parallel course. Our transportation, in particular, a public 
service of incalculable importance, has remained under the 
control of private corporations, and these have received 
municipal and legislative grants of enormous value. It 
may be, however, that the movement toward public control 
of such corporations has only lagged behind that affecting 
educational institutions. The current agitation in favor of 
" public ownership of public utilities " would seem to indi- 
cate something of this sort. But at the present time the 
relation of government to transportation in this country 
is broadly analogous to the relation of government to the 
institutions of education a century ago. 

Even as regards educational institutions, the movement 
has been very slow and unequal, and the earlier policy has 
been only partially reversed. In the case of our colleges, 
the demand for public control was doubtless accentuated 
by ecclesiastical considerations ; or more exactly by the 
rapid spread of the doctrine of religious freedom. Through- 
out the earlier part of this movement, the academies escaped 
the criticism which the colleges had to encounter. Their 
form of organization was, in fact, much the same as that of 
the colleges. But it was not so much a form of organization 
which was under criticism, at the first, as it was specific 
defects and abuses in the colleges. In these particulars, the 
academies were contrasted with the colleges, to the advan- 
tage of the lower institutions. The academies were in 
high favor at the very time that the colleges were under 
fire. 

But some had held from the beginning that the great 
obstacle in the way of an immediate righting of the abuses 



294 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

complained of was the private and inaccessible *haracter of 
the college corporations. The Dartmouth College case deep- 
ened this conviction, and adverse criticism soon extended to 
the similar corporations of the academies. The demand for 
public education under public control was a rising tide and 
in time it affected institutions of every rank and grade. It 
was on this rising tide that new systems of elementary edu- 
cation came into being, and with them, borne on the same 
sweep of public opinion, came a new type of secondary 
school — the public high school. 

Up to the nineteenth century, elementary education had 
been even more fragmentary and inadequate in this country 
than education of a higher grade. There was, however, 
nothing unique in this state of affairs. Effective systems of 
elementary instruction in Europe are largely the growth of 
the past hundred years. In England the nineteenth century 
movement was got under way through the agency of volun- 
tary societies organized for the conduct and maintenance of 
schools ; for thirty years, in the second and third quarters 
of the century, these societies were doing the work of ele- 
mentary education in England with the aid of government 
subsidies ; and this arrangement still continues, in full force, 
only supplemented during the past generation with schools 
under public control, which are designed merely to fill gaps 
in the facilities provided under the earlier system. 

The English societies were an outcome of the monitorial 
movement, as promoted by Joseph Lancaster and Dr. Bell. 
The same influence was felt at an early day in this country, 
and similar societies were organized here for the building up 
of schools. The Free School Society, organized at New 
York in 1805, took up and extended an educational cam- 
paign which had been begun by other societies similarly 
constituted. It was incorporated and subsidized by the 
New York legislature. In 1826 the name was changed to 
the Public School Society ; and under this title the organi- 
zation continued to direct and control the greater part of 
the elementary education of this large and growing city. 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC CONTROL 295 

till religious controversy led to the transfer of the schools 
to a public board of education, in 1842.^ 

Other cities had somewhat similar societies, which sus- 
tained various relations to popular education. In Boston, 
the system of schools, as remodelled in 1789, included writing 
schools, English grammar schools, and the Latin school ; but 
there was no public provision for primary schools, in which 
little children might make their earliest scholastic beginnings. 
Schools of this lowest grade were in existence, but all under 
private management. This condition remained unchanged 
till the year 1818, when for the first time primary schools 
were made a part of the Boston public school system.^ 

The gradual building up of public systems of elementary 
schools tended directly to the bringing in of high schools ; 
for there came to be a large number of children, not intended 
for college and for professional life, who nevertheless had 
gone through a course of elementary schooling in public 
schools and were ready to go further if the opportunity were 
offered. The gradual increase of wealth in our larger towns 
and cities tended to the increase of such a class as this. The 
common people of these towns and cities were becoming 
desirous of more extended education ; and the commercial 
activities of these centres called for a different kind of train- 
ing from that offered by the schools designed to prepare for 
college. 

The academies were ready to respond to this demand, but 
another ol)jection to the academies appeared. The public 
schools had been gradually made free schools, the rate-bills 
for tuition having been little by little discontinued. The 
academies generally charged small tuition fees, and but few 
of them were largely enough endowed to get on well with- 
out such charges.^ We begin now to find a demand growing 

1 BoESE, Public education in the city of New York. Bourne, History of 
the Public School Society. 

2 WiGHTMAN, Anncds of the Boston primary school committee, passim. 

^ The effort had been made to offer free instruction in some of the earlier 
academies. At Phillips Exeter, the first tuition fee, of only two dollars a year, 
was imposed in 1809. Cunningham, op. cit., p. 79. 



296 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

up for schools higher in grade than the elementary schools, 
which should be as accessible to the poor as to the rich. 
The public schools were now regarded as the schools of the 
people, in contrast with the academies which were repre- 
sented as schools for the few who were able to pay. 

So the movement toward the public control of institutions 
of learning was mixed in with the various other movements 
which were making in this country a prosperous and aggres- 
sive democracy ; and new institutions not a few were coming 
out of it all. Not the least significant of these was the 
public high school. 

NOTE. 

The cliarters of the colonial colleges are given in Miss Clews' valuable 
compilation. Files of the Independent Reflector are not commonly found, 
even in the best libraries. There is one in the Lenox Library, and, an- 
other, nearly complete, in the State Library of New York, which. I have 
used in preparing this chapter. 

On the Dartmouth College case, see 

Shirley, John M., The Dartmouth College causes and the Supreme Court 
of the United States. St. Louis : G. I. Jones and Company, 1879, 
pp. 469. 



CHAPTEE XIV 

THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 

The English High School of Boston is regarded as the pio- 
neer of the high school movement in this country. In 1818 
Boston had extended its public school system downward to 
include the primary schools. In 1820 steps were taken 
looking to an extension of the system upward, in an institu- 
tion planned with reference to the needs of those pupils who 
were not destined for the classical course of the Latin 
School. On the forty-fifth anniversary of the battle of Bun- 
ker Hill, the school committee having under consideration 
the question of appointments and salaries in the Latin 
School for the ensuing year, Mr. S. A. Wells introduced a 
number of resolutions relating, in part, to the establishment 
of an " English Classical School." ^ This part of the resolu- 
tions was referred to a sub-committee, which reported Octo- 
ber 26 of the same year. On that date the school committee 
voted " that it is expedient to establish an English Classical 
School in the Town of Boston." At a subsequent meeting 
the selectmen of the town were requested to call a town 
meeting for the consideration of the sub-committee's report 
as amended by the school committee. A town meeting was 
accordingly held January 15, 1821, at which the plan out- 
lined in the report was debated, and finally adopted with 
only three dissenting votes. 

1 I am indebted to Mr. George H. Martin, Supervisor of Public Schools, 

Boston, and author of The evohUion of the Massachusetts public school system, 
for the opportunity of using the MS. records of the Boston school committee 
in preparing this account. 



298 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The Boston Advertiser'^ of January 13, 1821, had sounded 
a note of caution. "A town meeting," it said, "is to be 
holden on Monday next, to act, among other things, on the 
proposition for establishing what is called an English Classi- 
cal School. We trust that a measure of this sort will not be 
adopted without due consideration. It ought to be consid- 
ered what will be the effect of it on the existing English 
Grammar Schools, and also on the Latin Grammar School. 
Will not its effect be to degrade the former institutions, 
by transferring the more liberal studies now pursued in 
them, and for which they are, or ought to be, fully compe- 
tent, to a single school more favored by the public ? And 
is it not the intention of some of the friends of the new 
school to withdraw a portion of the patronage which is now 
bestowed on the Latin School ? " But the nearly unanimous 
vote to establish the school seems to show that the consid- 
eration of these doubts resulted in putting them aside. 

The same town meeting passed a second vote, " That the 
School Committee from year to year be, and hereby are, 
instructed to revise the course of studies proposed in the 
report this day made and accepted for the new school, and 
adopt such measures as experience shall dictate, and the 
object of its establishment require." 

The sub-committee's report, presumably as amended and 
presented to the town meeting, stands as follows on the 
records of the school committee : 



"EEPORT. 

" Though the present system of public education, and the munifi- 
cence with which it is supported, are highly beneficial and honor- 
able to the Town ; yet in the opinion of the Committee, it is 
susceptible of a greater degree of perfection and usefuhiess, without 
materially augmenting the weight of the public burdens. Till re- 
cently, our system occupied a middle station : it neither commenced 

1 Then edited by Nathan Hale, the father of Edward Everett Hale. 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 299 

with the rudiments of Education, nor extended to the higher 
branches of knowledge. This system was supported by the Town 
at a very great expense, and to be admitted to its advantages, 
certain prehminary qualifications were required at individual cost, 
which have the effect of excluding many children of the poor and 
unfortunate classes of the community from the benefits of a public 
education. The Town saw and felt this inconsistency in the plan, 
and have removed the defect by providing Schools in which the 
children of the poor can be fitted for admission into the public 
seminaries. 

" The present system, in the opinion of the Committee, requires 
still farther amendment. The studies that are pursued at the Eng- 
lish grammar schools are merely elementary, and more time than is 
necessary is devoted to their acquisition. A scholar is admitted at 
seven, and is dismissed at fourteen years of age ; thus, seven years 
are expended in the acquisition of a degree of knowledge, which 
with ordinary diligence and a common capacity, may be easily and 
perfectly acquired in five. If then, a boy remain the usual term, a 
large portion of the time will have been idly or uselessly expended, 
as he may have learned all that he may have been taught long 
before its expiration. This loss of time occurs at that interesting 
and critical period of life, when the habits and inclinations are 
forming by which the future character will be fixed and determined. 
This evil, therefore, should be removed, by enlarging the present 
system, not merely that the time now lost may be saved, but that 
those early habits of industry and application may be acquired, 
which are so essential in leading to a future life of virtue and 
usefulness. 

" Nor are these the only existing evils. ' The mode of education 
now adopted, and the branches of knowledge that are taught at our 
English grammar schools, are not sufficiently extensive nor other- 
wise calculated to bring the powers of the mind into operation nor 
to qualify a youth to fill usefully and respectably many of those 
stations, both public and private, in which he may be placed.' A 
parent who wishes to give a child an education that shall fit him 
for active life, and shall serve as a foundation for eminence in his 
profession, whether Mercantile or Mechanical, is under the necessity 
of giving him a different education from any which our public 
schools can now furnish. Hence, many children are separated 



300 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

from their parents and sent to private academies in this vicinity, 
to acquire that instruction which cannot be obtained at the public 
seminaries. Thus, many parents, who contribute largely to the 
support of these institutions, are subjected to heavy expense for the 
same object, in other towns. 

" The Committee, for these and many other weighty considera- 
tions that might be offered, and in order to render the present sys- 
tem of public education more nearly perfect, are of the opinion that 
an additional School is required. They therefore, recommend the 
founding of a seminary which shall be called the English Classical 
School, and submit the following as a general outline of a plan for 
its organization and of the course of studies to be pursued. 

" 1st. That the term of time for pursuing the course of studies 
proposed, be three years. 

'■^2ndly. That the School be divided into three classes, and one 
year be assigned to the studies of each class. 

" Srdly. That the age of admission be not less than twelve years. 

^' 4^thly. That the School be for Boys exclusively. 

'■'■ Btlily. That candidates for admission be proposed on a given 
day annually ; but scholars with suitable qualifications may be 
admitted at any intermediate time to an advanced standing. 

" 6ihly. That candidates for admission shall be subject to a strict 
examination, in such manner as the School Committee may direct, 
to ascertain their qualifications according to these rules. 

" 7tlily. That it be required of every candidate, to qualify him 
for admission, that he be well acquainted with reading, writing, 
English grammar in all its branches, and arithmetic as far as 
simple proportion. 

^^Sthly. That it be required of the Masters and Ushers, aa a 
necessary qualification, that they shall have been regularly educated 
at some University. 

" The Studies of the First Class to he as follows : 



Composition. 

Reading from the most approved 
authors. 

Exercises in Criticism ; com- 
prising critical analyses of the 
language, grammar, and style 



of the best English authors, 
their errors & beauties. 

Declamation. 

Geography. 

Arithmetic continued. 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 



301 



" The Studies of the Second Glass. 



>■ [continued] 



Composition. 
Reading. 
Exercises in 

Criticism. 
Declamation, 
Algebra : 
Ancient and Modern History 

and Chronology. 
Logic. 



Geometry. 

Plane Trigonometry ; and its ap- 
plication to mensuration of 
Heights and Distances. 

Navigation. 

Surveying. 

Mensuration of Superficies & 
Solids. 

Forensic Discussions. 



The Studies of the Third Glass. 



Natural Philosophy, 
including Astronomy ; 

Moral and Political 
Philosophy." 



Composition ; 

Exercises in 
Criticism ; 

Declamation ; 

Mathematics ; l-continued 

Logic ; 

History; particu- 
larly that of the 
United States ; ^ 



[A financial statement follows, in which it is proposed 
that four thousand dollars yearly be spent on the school, 
to support a master, sub-master, and two ushers. The 
report then closes with general considerations relating to 
the usefulness of public schools.] 

In accordance with this plan, the school opened in May, 
1821, with Mr. George Barrell Emerson as principal master, 
and a membership of over one hundred pupils. And so 
began the establishment of city high schools in this country. 

It will be observed that the term high school does not 
appear in the early record of this Boston institution ; and it 
may not be amiss to devote a little space here to a consid- 
eration of the titles of our early schools of this type. Some- 
times such a school was known as the free academy. This 
hints at a close connection in thought between the high 



302 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

school and its immediate predecessor, the academy. The 
New York City College was known as the New York Free 
Academy in its earlier days. The high school at Albany 
bore a similar title till 1873. The term free, in this case, 
seems to refer to gratuity of instruction.^ The memorial 
presented to the state legislature by the board of education 
of the City of New York, in 1847, relative to the establish- 
ment of a Free Academy, states that "one object of the pro- 
posed free institution is to create an additional interest in, 
and more completely popularize the Common Schools. It is 
believed that they will be regarded with additional favor, and 
attended with increased satisfaction when the pupils and 
their parents feel that the children who have received their 
primary education in these schools can be admitted to all 
the benefits and advantages furnished by the best endowed 
college in the state without any expense whatever." ^ 

Sometimes the term union school was used rather loosely 
to denote the highest department of a graded school system. 
This recalls at once the fact that our high schools are an 
upward extension of the public graded schools, and that 
" grading " was commonly made possible in the early days 
by a union of school districts. Strictly speaking, the graded 
school, formed in this way, constituted in its entirety the 
" union school." But the high school department was the 
most conspicuous division in such a school, and so often 
monopolized the appellation which belonged of right to the 
system as a whole.^ 

1 Yet the Norwich (Connecticut) Free Academy, which retains this designa- 
tion, requires the payment of a small fee for incidentals. It is not an ordinary 
high school, however, being a chartered and endowed institution. Dr. Steiner 
saj's of this school that it, "better than almost any other in the State, com- 
bines the good features of the old academy with those of the new high school." 
The history of education in Connecticut, p. 53. The early history of this school 
will be noted further on in this chapter. 

- Quoted by Boese, Puhlic education in the city of New York, p. 75. 

^ There is an interesting discussion of the term, and the school for which 
it stands, in the report of Ira Mayhew, State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion of Michigan, for the year 1857, pp. 47-49. See also Barney, Report on 
the American system of graded free schools. 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 303 

It would appear that the term high school was used to 
some extent in Pennsylvania, even in colonial times. Mr. 
Wickersham applies it to a school established at German- 
town in 1761, and carried on successfully for some years 
thereafter ; and to another opened in 1764 by the Schwenck- 
f elders, in Berks County, later removed to Montgomery 
County, and maintained with a good degree of success for 
two generations.^ The latter school was started with a 
subscription aggregating £600, a part of which fund was 
passed on to the public schools when a state system was 
finally established in Pennsylvania. Latin, Greek, and the 
higher mathematics were taught in its classes. 

It is evident that these Pennsylvania schools were not 
high schools of the modern type, and it is not likely that 
they exercised any influence upon the later use of the desig- 
nation applied to them. If they were called " high schools " 
by their founders, it is probable that the name was derived 
-from the German HochschuU, a term used somewhat indefi- 
nitely to designate a school of advanced grade. 

The Boston school committee, when it came to provide a 
place of abode for the proposed English high school, voted, 
" That the third story of the new School-house in Derne 
Street, be appropriated for the present to the use of the 
English Classical School." Three years later, June 23, 1824, 
" it was Voted that the schoolhouse which the city is now 
building on Pinckney Street be appropriated to the use and 
accommodation of the English High School : — that the 
Grammar School, on Derne Street, be hereafter called and 
known by the name of the Bowdoin School : and that the 
vote of 11th May, giving that name to the house on Pinckney 
S'- be repealed." 

We do not know how the " English Classical School " came 
to be the " English High School." The latter title appears 
for the first time on the records of the school committee in 
the resolution quoted above. It is not impossible that the 
vote of June 23, 1824, was expressly intended, among other 

' Education in Pennsylvania, pp. 142, 170. 



304 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

things, to bestow upon this school the designation of " High 
School." Or, there may have been an earlier resolution upon 
the same subject which failed through some mischance to 
find its proper place in the secretary's minutes. 

It was a time of new things in Boston. The town became 
a city on the first of May, 1822. Josiah Quincy, its second 
mayor, was at the head of its government from 1823 to 
1828. He was a man of positive convictions and devoted 
himself assiduously to municipal affairs. Under the city 
government, until 1835, the mayor and board of aldermen 
were members ex officio of the school committee. Mr. 
Quincy's own account of the establishment of the school 
reads as follows : " In 1820, a,n English classical school was 
established, having for its object to enable the mercantile 
and mechanical classes to obtain an education adapted for 
those children, whom their parents wished to qualify for 
active life, and thus relieve them from the necessity of 
incurring the expense incident to private academies." ^ It 
may be surmised that his own unfortunate experience at 
the Phillips Andover Academy, in the first years of its 
existence, may have pointed Mr. Quincy's reference to the 
school as a substitute for the academy.^ He certainly 
interested himself in its affairs, and while still mayor was 
deep in the controversy relating to the high school for 
girls. He may have had much or little to do with the 
renaming of the English Classical School ; but it seems not 
improbable that he was concerned with the change, that 
the new name was adopted in imitation of the Edinburgh 
High School, and that one channel through which the 
influence of the Edinburgh institution reached Boston was 
John Griscom's account of his visit to the Scottish capital. 

John Griscom was a Quaker, living in New York, a 
man of scientific tastes and of substantial attainments in 
chemistry, a shrewd and sympathetic observer of men and 
institutions. He travelled extensively in Europe, and on his 

1 Quincy, A ommicipal history of the town and city of Boston, pp- 21-22. 

2 Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, pp. 23-28. 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 305 

return published in two volumes an account of his observa- 
tions. This work was noticed at some length in the North 
American Review for January, 1824. The Review was at 
that time published in Boston. 

Professor Griscom (he was professor of chemistry and 
natural philosophy in the "New York Institution") in- 
terested himself in European movements for ameliorating 
the condition of the poor and of the criminal class. He 
devotes considerable attention in the account of his travels 
to Mrs. Fry's work in the Newgate prison. On his return 
to America he was instrumental in securing the establish- 
ment of a house of industry in New York. Mr. Quincy, in 
the face of much opposition, brought about the establish- 
ment of a similar institution for the city of Boston. Some 
years later, Professor Griscom was the guest of Mr. Quincy, 
and visited with him the penal institutions at Boston. 

In Edinburgh, Mr. Griscom made the acquaintance of 
Dr. Pillans, later professor in the University of Edinburgh, 
but at that time rector of the High School. This school 
interested the American visitor greatly, and his account of 
it is reproduced verhatim in the article already referred to, 
in the North American Revieio. But both the author and 
the reviewer were especially interested in the fact that Dr. 
Pillans was employing the monitorial system in the conduct 
of his school. The Bell-Lancaster controversy was in full 
swing in Great Britain, and many ardent school men on 
this side of the water were coming to believe that the 
Lancasterian method had been sent down from heaven to 
solve the problem of financiering a complete system of 
popular education. The state of New York, at the prompt- 
ing of Governor De Witt Clinton, had entered upon a general 
Lancasterian movement in the second decade of this century. 
Massachusetts was more conservative, but numerous schools 
of the same type began to spring up within her borders in 
the twenties. Yet there had appeared but little disposition 
on either side of the water to extend the system to secondary 
schools ; and the great apparent success of Dr. Pillans' 

20 



306 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

experiment in the Edinburgh High School commanded 
thoughtful attention. 

The reviewer remarks " that the city of Boston, which 
makes, we doubt not, in proportion to its means, a more 
honorable exertion for the instruction of its own community, 
and is rewarded by a more excellent success, than any other 
city of equal size in the world, pays at least twice as much 
for the instruction of a boy in its admirable Latin School, as 
is paid for the instruction of a boy at the High School, in 
the more expensive city of Edinburgh ; " and makes a con- 
servative suggestion that those who have the management 
of public instruction inquire into the practicability of adopt- 
ing some portions of the system of mutual instruction. 

Professor Griscom himself proceeded to establish a school 
at New York, under the management of a board of trustees. 
These trustees were incorporated as the " High-School 
Society," and the school was known as the " High School 
for Boys." It was not opened till the first of March, 1825, 
some months after the Boston school had taken its new 
name ; but its establishment seems to have been under 
consideration and discussion for a year or two before the 
formal opening. 

The history of this incorporated " high school " in New 
York can be traced for several years, in a series of published 
reports. They are well edited and make interesting read- 
ing. The school received over six hundred scholars the 
first year. The same society opened a " Female High- 
School " February 1, 1826. The monitorial system was 
employed in these schools, but apparently with more reserve 
and caution in the higher than in tlie lower classes. The 
following statement as to studies is taken from the first 
report : 

" It should never be forgotten, that the grand object of this insti- 
tution is to prepare the boys for such advancement, and such 
pursuits in life, as they are destined to after leaving it. All who 
enter the school do not intend to remain for the same period cf 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 307 

time — and many who leave it expect to enter immediately upon 
the active business of life. It is very plain that these circumstances 
must require corresponding classifications of scholars and of 
studies." 

" Some pursuits are nevertheless common to all. All the 
scholars in this department attend to Spelling, "Writing, Arithmetic, 
Geography, Elocution, Composition, Drawing, Philosophy, Natural 
History, and Book-Keeping. Philosophy and ISTatural History are 
taught chiefly by lectures and by questions ; and these branches, 
together with Elocution and Composition, are severally attended to 
one day in every week." -^ 

The fourth report contains a biographical sketch of 
Daniel H. Barnes, associate principal of the school, whose 
life had been lost in a stage-coach accident. The following 
passage relates to his acceptance of the monitorial system : 

" He had satisfied himself of the value of this system by trial on 
a small scale in his own private classes, when his confidence in its 
efficacy was increased by its successful application in the High 
School of Edinburgh by Professor Pellans, as well as by the attesta- 
tions of Drs. Mann and D'Oyley to its use in the Charter-House 
School of London. 

"He, therefore, eagerly co-operated in the foundation of the 
High School for Boys, in 1824." ^ 

It appears that dissatisfaction with the name of the new 
Boston school had found expression as early as 1823. The 
Prize Book of the Latin School published in that year con- 
tains an admirable account of the free schools of Boston, 
written undoubtedly by Mr. B. A. Gould, then principal of 
the Latin School. The part relating to the school vv^e have 
under consideration opens with the following paragraph : 

"Public opinion and the wants of a large class of citizens of this 
town have long been calling for a school in which those, who have 

1 First annual report of the Eigh-Scliool Society, pp. 6-7. 
^ Fourth annual report of the High- School Society, pp. 10-11. This school 
died about the close of the year 1831. 



308 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

either not the desire or the means of obtaining a classical education, 
might receive instruction in many branches of great practical 
importance which have usually been taught only at the Colleges. 
This led to the establishment of the English Classical School." 

A foot-note to the last sentence contains the following 
comment : 

" This is as far as possible from being what its name indicates, 
as the classics, properly so called, are not taught, nor any knowl- 
edge of their languages required. It is hoped that an enlightened 
board of school committee will find some more appropriate name 
for this school, and not suffer so erroneous a use of terms to pre- 
vail among the youth of Boston." ^ 

Whether with or without official sanction, the change of 
name was made, as we have seen, in 1824. But at one time 
the use of the earlier designation was resumed. In 1832 
the school committee, finding no authority in their minutes 
for the title " English High School," dropped it and called 
the institution the " English Classical School," as at the be- 
ginning. The committee took considerable interest in this 
matter, and one would guess from the record that it was the 
occasion of some controversy. However, this action of 1832 
was reversed in the following year, and since that time the 
school has been uniformly known as the English High 
School. 

It seems altogether probable, in the light of such facts as 
have been presented, that this name was suggested by that 
of the high school at Edinburgh.^ But it is not so clear 
that the Boston school followed the example of its Scotch 
namesake in other particulars. I have not found evidence 
that the system of mutual instruction was ever introduced 
into the English High School Moreover, the instruction in 
the ancient classics, which was — and I suppose still is — the 

1 Op. ciL, p. 16. 

2 How did the Edinburgh school get its name ? And was not the term high 
school already a common one in Scotland two or three centuries ago ? It might 
be of interest to follow these questions further. 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 309 

most marked feature of the Edinburgh school, was not in- 
troduced into the English High School at all, in the earlier 
days. The contrast between the two schools in this par- 
ticular is brought out sharply by another passage in Gris- 
com's account. He says : 

"Although the system of instruction adopted in the High School 
is, professedly, intended to be chiefly classical ; P[illans] remarked, 
that he should think himself very deficient in his duty, in teaching 
the boys only Latin and Greek, and omitting to avail himself of 
every suitable occasion to inculcate moral truth, and to excite them 
to intellectual exertion. This he regards as one of the most im- 
portant advantages of classical instruction. He thinks it might 
be practicable to frame a course of English study, that would be 
equally efficacious in training the mind to the pursuit of knowledge, 
and in disciplining its powers to a close and vigorous application; 
but such a course of study would be exceedingly unpopular in 
Scotland." 1 

The ideas embodied in the English High School, then, 
cannot be traced to the High School of Edinburgh, however 
much the rector of that school at the time may have been 
disposed to look favorably on such ideas. In so far as they 
were drawn from institutions then existing, we can trace 
them to the English side of the New England academies ; 
and to the English grammar schools of Boston, of which the 
high school was an extension upward. The school was un- 
doubtedly influenced also by the Latin School, which it 
paralleled. In one important particular the example of the 
Edinburgh school may in all likelihood have worked to the 
advantage of the high school in Boston. From the year 1566 
the former institution had been under the direct control and 
patronage of the city authorities of Edinburgh. Like other 
schools of the Scotch municipalities, it enjoyed a peculiarly 
close relationship with the civic life of the community in 
which it was established. Both the Latin School and the 
English High School have stood in a like relationship with 

1 Op. ciL, II., p. 365. 



310 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

the civic life of Boston. Edinburgh and Boston have had 
many common interests, and pride in institutions of learning 
under public control has been not the least of these. This 
connection of the schools with the political community is 
\ worthy of special notice, for such connection has been of 
great significance in the growth of our American high schools. 
It would seem that the example of Edinburgh has had its 
influence along with that of Boston in our high school 
movement beyond the limits of New England. When the 
Public School Society of New York made their appeal, in 
1828, for means wherewith to establish a high school, the 
examples to which they pointed in support of their plan 
were those of Edinburgh and Boston : 

" The means of instruction, which are offered to the poor, should 
be the very best which can be provided. They may not all be able 
to proceed so far in the path of learning as others in happier cir- 
cumstances. But to the extent of their progress, let them have all 
the helps which the present state of knowledge affords. This is 
no mere fanciful theory. The advantages of a free intercourse and 
competition between persons of all ranks and conditions in life, as 
exhibited in the Edinburgh High School, have been admirably 
illustrated by one of the first British orators of the age. He re- 
garded such an institution as invaluable in a free state; because, to 
vise his own language, men of the highest and lowest rank in the 
community sent their children there to be educated togetlier. The 
practical beneficence of this system is attested by the noble insti- 
tutions of a sister city." ^ 

^ An address of the trustees of the Public School Society in the City of Neto 
York, to their fellow-citizens respecting the extension of their public schools. 
New York, 1828, p. 11. 

The "sister city " is undoubtedly Boston, which is elsewhere mentioned by 
name in the same document. The Biitish orator referred to is Lord Brougham, 
who had been an Edinburgh High-School boy. The remarks quoted from 
him were uttered at the great entertainment given in his honor in Edin- 
burgh in 1825. Steven gives the passage in full {History of the high school of 
Edinburgh, pp. 212-213). It may be added tliat Lord Brougham's Practical 
observations 'Uf on the education of the people, wliich ran through twenty edi- 
tions in the year of its publication (1825), was reprinted the following year in 
Boston. 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 311 

Within a few years after the establishment of the English 
High School in Boston, several other schools of similar 
character were opened in different parts of Massachusetts. 
The ''Educational Eevival" was soon in full progress in 
that state, and public schools of all grades were quickened 
and strengthened by it. 

A little later the high school movement passed beyond 
the bounds of Massachusetts. The state legislature of 
Pennsylvania had passed an act, in 1818, making the "Lan- 
casterian " system obligatory on the schools of Philadelphia. 
In 1836 this statute was repealed, and the new act for 
Philadelphia then passed authorized the establishment of a 
high school. The Central High School, erected under this 
act, was opened to students in October, 1838. The first year 
its organization was tentative. Then it came under the 
strong, shaping hand of Alexander Dallas Bache, who was 
at its head from 1839 to 1842. He provided three parallel 
courses : An English course, two years in length ; a classical 
course of four years ; and a modern languages course of four 
years. Professor Bache, in 1841, described the object of the 
school as being " especially to provide a liberal education for 
those intended for business life." The legislature granted to 
it, in 1849, the power to confer academic degrees. 

The mayor and city council of Baltimore, in 1839, author- 
ized and requested the commissioners of public schools of 
that city to establish a high school, " in which the higher 
branches of English and classical literature only should be 
taught." In accordance with this resolution, the Baltimore 
high school was organized in the fall of 1839. In 1848 the 
name of this institution was changed to " the Central High 
School," in order to distinguish it from the Eastern and 
Western high schools, which had then been provided. A 
reorganization in 1851 introduced the departmental plan of 
instruction. The name was changed by city ordinance, in 
1866, to " The Baltimore City College." 

Charleston, South Carolina, was about this time a center 
of particularly active educational interest. In 1839, the 



312 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

city council voted to establish a high school, and the school 
was opened on the first of July of that year. A tuition fee 
of forty dollars a year was charged, the city council voting 
to supplement the income from this source so as to provide 
amply for the maintenance of the school. An annual 
appropriation of one thousand dollars was also voted " to be 
invested in city bonds to form a permanent fund for the 
school." Only boys were admitted. They were offered two 
parallel courses of study, classical and English, each four 
years in length. 

At Providence, Ehode Island, a graded school system had 
been established in 1829. In 1838, after much opposition, 
a city ordinance was secured providing for the reorganiza- 
tion of the schools and the establishment of a high school. 
The next year Nathan Bishop was employed as school 
superintendent. The high school building was dedicated 
early in 1843, and the school was opened, with the super- 
intendent acting as its principal. This school had a girls' 
department from the start. In 1855 the boys' department 
was divided into a classical and an English and scientific 
department. 

A number of such schools were established in the towns 
of Ohio in the course of the forties. Connecticut joined in 
the movement about the same time ; and in 1847, after a 
campaign of education led by such men as Horace Bushnell 
and Henry Barnard, Hartford voted " to establish a free 
high school for instruction in the higher branches of an 
English and the elementary branches of a classical educa- 
tion, for all the male and female children of suitable age and 
acquirements in this society, who may wish to avail them- 
selves of its advantages." The old, colonial grammar school 
of Hartford, which had been transformed into something 
like an academy, as has already been told, was now made 
a part of the new high school, and the income from its 
endowment was used for the support of a classical teacher. 

An act of the New York state legislature authorized the 
board of education of New York City, in 1847, to establish 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 313 

a free academy. This act was ratified the same year by 
vote of the city, and the school was opened the following 
year. In 1854 it was empowered to grant academic degrees. 
On recommendation of the board of education, in 1866, the 
institution became " The College of the City of New York." 

From 1850 to the outbreak of the Civil War, the es- 
tablishment of high schools went steadily forward. In 
Cincinnati the Hughes and Woodward funds, devoted to 
educational uses by two early citizens of that town, were 
made available for an extension of the public schools in 
1851, and the Hughes and Woodward High Schools were 
accordingly established. The Woodward endowment, dating 
from 1826, had maintained a high school, so called, from 
1831 to 1836, and a college from 1836 to 1851. The 
Hughes bequest had been made in 1824. 

The Girls' High School ^ of Boston, which had been closed 
in 1828 after a flourishing existence of only two years, was 
reopened, in 1852, as a training school for teachers. St. 
Louis opened a regular high school in 1853, Chicago and 
San Francisco each in 1856, and Detroit in 1858. 

How many schools of this class were in existence previous 
to the Civil War, it would be hard to say. According to 
Barney's Beport on the American system, eighty cities had 
such schools in 185 1.^ One year later, there were sixty- 
four reported in Massachusetts alone.^ Ohio is said to have 
had ninety-seven in 1856.* Other states were already mak- 
ing considerable progress in the building up of such institu- 
tions. Dr. Harris' estimate of forty high schools in the 
whole country in 1860 ^ was doubtless reached through 

1 For a sketch of the early history of this school, see The School Review, 
VII., pp. 286-294, May, 1899. 

2 Op. cit., p. 5. 

^ Hill, How far the high school is a just charge, etc. 

* Taylor, Ohio school system, p. 409. 

^ In his address on Recent groivth of public high schools, etc. (Proc. N". E. A., 
session of 1901, pp. 174-180). Dr. Harris has of late been making an 
extended inquiry into the chronology of our early high schools, and has 
courteously permitted rae to make use of a tabulated summary of his 
results. See Appendix D. 



314 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

a winnowing process. It is fair to presume that many 
institutions known as high schools were only advanced ele- 
mentary schools, so far as their spirit and methods were con- 
cerned. On the other hand, many elementary schools, under 
ambitious teachers, were pushing upward into higher ranges 
of study. " Our public schools must be expanded upwards," 
said Samuel Lewis of Ohio. This conviction was abroad, 
among teachers and members of educational boards.-^ 

Yet the great majority of students pursuing secondary 
school studies was still found in the academies, and the 
establishment of new academies was going steadily forward. 
It is not surprising that, although the institutions of these 
two types were so diverse in character and aims, there 
should have sprung up an active rivalry between them. 
This rivalry was not simply a competition for patronage, 
but was much more the clash of opposing views of public 
education. 

The discussions of the time, particularly those which 
attended the establishment of new high schools, throw 
much light on the principles and aspirations of the two 
institutions.^ An unusually illuminating literature of this 
sort was called forth by the establishment of the free acad- 
emy at Norwich, Connecticut, early in the fifties. This 
institution differed from the ordinary type both of the 
academy and of the high school. Its origin is described 
as follows in a recent issue of the annual catalogue : ^ 

" The Free Academy originated in a remarkable movement of 
leading citizens for the improvement of the educational advantages 
of Norwich. This movement commenced about 1846 and culmi- 

1 Mr. Giflford H. G. McGrew, of the University of California, has prepared 
a preliminary list of early high schools. I am indebted to Mr. McGrew for a 
copy of his manuscript, which has been of help to me in the preparation of this 
chapter. 

2 On various aspects of this discussion, see for example, Stockwell, Public 
education in Rhode Island, pp. 175-194; the centennial History of education 
in the state of Ohio, pp. 133-148, 158, 160-162, and 172 ; and Barney's Re- 
port of 1851. with Mudd's Review of 1853. 

8 The quotation is from the catalogue for 1894-95. 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 315 

nated in 1854, when the academy was incorporated. The leader 
of the enterprise was Dr. John P. Gulliver, who died last year in 
Andover, Mass., and has left behind him an enduring claim to the 
gratitude of dwellers in Norwich in all coming generations. The 
popular movement was part of that general agitation out of which 
came the high-school system, first developed by Horace Mann in 
Massachusetts, and afterward generally adopted in the United 
States. 

" In iSforwich, however, no high school was established. Instead 
of this, a body of the most influential citizens took upon their own 
shoulders the burden of providing for higher education. Amid 
much enthusiasm an endowment of $50,000 was raised, with 
$30,000 additional to cover the cost of the school building, and 
the academy was opened October 21, 1856, with eighty pupils. 
The school, thus auspiciously founded, grew with a healthy growth, 
in both endowment and number of pupils, during the first thirty 
years of its existence ; but the great extension of its influence 
and its expansion during the last ten years, beyond what even its 
founders ventured to anticipate, are chiefly due to the wise liberality 
and personal interest of Mr. William A. Slater, a graduate of the 
academy in 1875, and of Harvard University in 1881." 

A more detailed account of the beginnings was given by 
Dr. Gulliver himself in his address at the dedication of the 
first Free Academy building, in October, 1856. Its bearing 
upon our subject is so intimate, and the intrinsic interest of 
certain portions is so great, that somewhat extended passages 
from it are here presented : 

" In January, 1839, a serious effort was made to effect a thorough 
reorganization of the city schools. This movement took its rise in 
the debates of the Norwich Mechanics' Association, in whose meet- 
ings the question had been discussed for two years, ' Is the school 
fund of Connecticut, as at present used, an injury or a benefit to 
our schools 1 ' The conviction became at last quite universal that 
without additional taxation of property for the support of schools 
the fund is a decided injury to the cause it was intended to pro- 
mote. A petition was accordingly prepared, in which similar 
associations in Hartford and New Haven united ; praying the 



316 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

legislature to grant to school districts the power of imposing taxes 
for the support of schools. 

" This petition was granted in respect to the districts represented 
hy the petitioners. Thereupon a report was presented by the Rev. 
Mr. Paddock and Mr. Francis A. Perkins to the school society 
recommending the union of tlie three central districts of the city 
and the establishment in them of a graded system of schools, with 
a high school at its head. This plan was, after some discussion, 
adopted without a dissenting voice. Certain individuals were, 
however, dissatisfied with this result, and in September of the same 
year they succeeded in procuring a reconsideration of the former 
vote, and the project was for that time abandoned." 

An interesting reference is made to the struggle, carried 
on in mass meetings and at the polls, between the advocates 
and the opponents of the high school. The address then 
continues : 

" This was the soil into which the seed was cast from which 
grew the grand enterprise whose successful beginning we celebrate 
to-day. In the midst of the struggle a gentleman, since a large 
donor to the institution, declared, more in jest than in earnest, 
* These men talk about a high school ! I would not take one for a 
gift if it is to be managed by such assemblages as we have lately 
had at the Town Hall. I am in favor of an endowed school and 
would give $5,000 toward one.' This chance remark suggested 
the idea of this institution ; and led to a series of inquiries and 
investigations which wei'e continued for two years. The first ques- 
tion was, Are public high schools, supported by taxation, in all 
respects successful 1 tlie second. Would endowed free schools remedy 
their defects 1 tlie third. On what plan should endowed schools be 
conducted in order to insure success 1 On these points, either by 
correspondence or by personal interviews, a large number of the 
leading educators of the country were consulted. It was ascer- 
tained that in all quarters apprehension was beginning to be felt in 
regard to the working of our higher public schools. The lower 
schools up to the grade of the grammar school were well sustained. 
Men were to be found in all our communities who had been them- 
selves educated up to that point, and understood, practically, the 
importance of such schools, in sufficient numbers to control popular 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 317 

sentiment, and secure for them ample appropriations and steady 
support. But the studies of the high school, Algebra, Geometry, 
Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Ancient History, Latin, Greek, 
French and German, were a perfect ' terra incognita ' to the great 
mass of the people. While the High School was a new thing and 
while a few enlightened citizens had the control of it, in numerous 
instances it was carried to a high state of perfection. But after a 
time the burden of taxation would begin to be felt. Men would 
discuss the high salaries paid to the accomplished teachers which 
such schools demand, and would ask, ' To what purpose is this 
waste ] ' Demagogues, keen-scented as wolves, would snuff the 
prey. 'What do we want of a High School to teach rich men's 
children % ' they would shout. ' It is a shame to tax the poor man , 
to pay a man $1,800 to teach children to make x's and pot-hooks 
and gabble parley- vous.' The work would go bravely on ; and on 
election day, amid great excitement, a new school committee would 
be chosen, in favor of retrenchment and popular rights. In a single 
day the fruit of years of labor would be destroyed. Such occur- 
rences, it was ascertained, had already become sufficiently numerous 
to excite alarm among the most intelligent friends of education. 
Even in communities where the high school had been uniformly 
prosperous, it appeared that the same influence was at work and 
awakened constant apprehension. The proposal to establish an 
endowed high school was regarded with great favor, and a uni- 
form opinion was expressed that, properly managed, it would supply 
all the defects in the public high school. Indeed the plan, though 
generally regarded as impracticable, was hailed with enthusiasm, 
as at least a theoretical solution of a very perplexing problem. 
The next point was to ascertain the principles which should form 
the basis of such an enterprise. The Putnam School, at jSTewbury- 
port, seemed to furnish the best model for imitation. This school 
had received an endowment of $50,000, from Oliver Putnam, 
Esq., of Newbury, and was then in successful operation, extending 
a most beneficent influence over a wide circle of common schools in 
eastern Massachusetts. One unfortunate error had, however, been 
committed by its founders, in assigning the election of the trustees 
to the town. A noted political leader, taking advantage of this 
circumstance, persuaded the people that Mi\ Putnam's design in 
founding the school, was not so much to raise the standard of 
education, as to relieve the burden of taxation, and proposed that 



318 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

the school should be made a substitute for one of the public schools 
of the town. There is great danger that the benevolent design of 
Mr. Putnam will be frustrated by the same influence which is sap- 
ping the foundation of many of our public high schools. Another 
salutary caution was given by the experience of the endowed school 
at Colchester. The funds there are under the control of a self- 
perpetuating board of trustees. But the school embraces all de- 
partments of instruction from the infant school upward. Then it 
becomes a rival to the common schools, and depresses rather than 
elevates them. Various other points in the plan became the sub- 
ject of careful thought and inquiry. The effort was made to attain 
all the light which the experience and skill of practical educators 
could furnish, though the painful conviction still remained, tliat 
others would, in like manner, hereafter learn wisdom from the 
errors into which we might fall." •*■ 

The opposing view was forcibly presented about this time 
by the Hon. George S. Boutwell, secretary of the Board of 
Education of the State of Massachusetts, in an address be- 
fore the American Institute of Instruction. The following 
passages from that address are especially significant : 

" The distinguishing difference between the advocates of endowed 
schools and of free schools is this : those who advocate the system 
of endowed academies go back in their arguments to one founda- 
tion, which is, that in education of the higher grades the great 
mass of the people are not to be trusted. And those who advocate 
a system of free education in high schools put tlie matter where we 
have put the rights of property and liberty, where we put the insti- 
tutions of law and religion — upon the public judgment. And we 
will stand there. If the public will not maintain institutions of 
learning, then, I say, let institutions of learning go down. 

" It is said that the means of education are better in an endowed 
academy, or in an endowed free school, than they can be in a pub- 
lic school. What is meant by means of education ? I understand 
that, first and chiefly, as extraneous means of education, we must 
look to a correct public sentiment, which shall animate and influ- 
ence the teacher, which shall give direction to the school, which 

* Norwich TFeeJchj Courier for November 25, 1856. 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 319 

shall furnish the necessary public funds. An endowed free 
academy can have none of these things permanently. Take, for 
example, the free school estahlished at Norwich by the liberality of 
thirty or forty gentlemen, who contributed ninety thousand dol- 
lars. What security is there that fifty years hence, when the 
educational wants of the people shall be changed, w^hen the popu- 
lation of Norwich shall be double or treble what it is now, when 
science shall make greater demands, when these forty contributors 
shall have passed away, this institution will answer the wants of 
that generation 1 According to what we know of the history of 
this country, it will be entirely inadequate ; and, though none 
of us may live to see the prediction fulfilled or falsified, I do not 
hesitate to say that the school will ultimately prove a failure, 
because it is founded in a mistake." ^ 

Mr. Boutwell discussed the same question in an address 
delivered at the dedication of the Powers Institute at Ber- 
nardston. His reference to Dartmouth College on that 
occasion is significant of the effect which the supreme court 
decision had had upon popular opinion with reference to 
secondary schools. He said : 

" This institution is a high school, and the question is now 
agitated, especially in the State of Connecticut, ' How can the 
advantages of a high-school education be best secured 1 ' This 
question I propose to consider. And-, first, the high school must 
be a public school. A public school I understand to be a school 
established by the public — supported chiefly or entirely by the 
public, controlled by the public, and accessible to the public upon 
terms of equality, without special charge for tuition. 

*' Private schools may be established and controlled by an in- 
dividual, or by an association of individuals, who have no corporate 
rights under the government, but receive pupils upon terms agreed 
upon, subject to the ordinary laws of the land. 

" Private schools may be founded also b}'' one or more persons, 
and by them endowed with funds for their partial or entire sup- 
port. In such cases the founder, through the money given, has 
the right to prescribe the rules by which the school shall be con- 

^ Boutwell, Hducational topics and institutions, pp. 152-154. 



320 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

trolled, and also to provide for the appointment of its managers or 
trustees through all time. In such cases, corporate powers are 
usually granted by the government for the management of the 
business. But the chief rights of such an institution are derived 
from the founder, and the facilities for their easy exercise and 
quiet enjoyment are derived from the state. 

" Such schools are sometimes, upon a superficial view, supposed 
to be public, because they receive pupils upon terms of equality, 
and no rule of exclusion exists which does not apply to all. And 
especially has it been assumed that a free school thus founded, as 
the Norwich Free Academy, which makes no charges for tuition, 
and is open to all the inhabitants of the city, is therefore a public 
school. These institutions are public in their use, but not in their 
foundation or control, and are therefore not public schools. The 
character of a school, as of an eleemosynary institution, is derived 
from the will of the founder ; and when the beneficial founder is 
an individual, or a number of individuals less than the whole politi- 
cal organization of which the individuals are a part, the institution 
is private, whatever the rules for its enjoyment may be. To say 
that a school is a public school because it receives pupils free of 
charge for tuition, or because it receives them upon conditions that 
are applied alike to all, is to deny that there are any private schools, 
for all come within the definition thus laid down. 

" Nor is there any good reasoning in the statement that a school 
is public because it receives pupils from a large extent of country. 
Dartmouth College is a private school, though its pupils come from 
all the land or all the world ; while the Boston Latin School is a 
public school, though it receives those pupils only whose homes 
are within the limits of the city. The first is a private school 
because it was founded by President Wheelock, and has been con- 
trolled by him and his successors, holding and governing and en- 
joying through him, from, the first until now; while the Boston 
Latin School is a public school, because it was established by the 
city of Boston, through the votes of its inhabitants, under the laws 
of the state, and is at all times subject, in its government and ex- 
istence, to the popular will which created it. . . . In the pri- 
vate school, with a self-perpetuating board of trustees, the temptation 
is strong to make the organization subservient to some opinion in 
politics, religion, or social life. This may not always be done ; 
but in many cases it has been done, and there is no reason to ex- 



THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS 321 

poet different things in the future. I concur, then, unreservedly 
in the judgment which has placed this institution, in all its inter- 
ests and in all its duties, under the control of the inhabitants of 
Bernardston." ^ 

These opposing arguments are presented for their historical 
rather than their controversial value. It may be added that 
the Norwich Free Academy has had and continues to have a 
highly successful career. At the same time it cannot be said 
to have inaugurated any general movement tov^^ard the estab- 
lishment of privately managed secondary schools as the 
direct continuation of city systems of elementary instruction. 
There is evidently room in our systems of public education 
for more than one type of secondary-school organization. 
More than that, there is evident need of schools of different 
types for the satisfaction of diverse wants and the attainment 
of various public ends. But the characteristic tendency of 
the past half-century is undoubtedly seen in the upward ex- 
tension of public elementary schools into public high schools. 

The making of these schools represents a high develop- 
ment of the spirit of co-operation. The earlier academy 
movement was a missionary enterprise — a bringing to the 
people of something for the people's good. The spirit which 
it embodied is one of the finest things in all the world, a 
mainstay of our hopes for the betterment of human life. 
The high schools on the other hand appeal less to imagi- 
nation and sentiment. Their promoters did not set about 
doing good to the people, but rather undertook to work with 
all the people for the common good. Here, too, we touch on 
one of the finest things in all the world, the spirit which 
draws men together in a common pursuit of the public wel- 
fare. And this, too, must have its place — a first place, 
is it not ? — in all our hope for better things. All of our 
best institutions, it should be added, the best of either sort 
and of every sort, go back to that precious foundation stone 
of our American life, the free initiative of high-minded indi- 
vidual citizens. 

1 Op. cit., pp. 187-195, 
21 



322 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

The following works, referred to in this chapter, are not included in the 
general bibliography : 

Griscom, John. A year in Europe, comprising a journal of observations 
in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, the north of Italy, 
and Holland. In 1818 and 1819. 2 vols. New York, 1823. 

Steven, William-, D.D. The history of the high school of Edinburgh. 
Edinburgh, ]849. 

Further information on some of the subjects with which the chapter deals 
may be found in Josiah Quincy's Mtviicipal history of the town and city 
of Boston (1852) ; in Edmund Quincy's Life of Josiah Quincy (Boston : 
Ticknor and Fields, 1867); and in Dr. John H. Griscom's Memoir of 
John Griscom, LL.D., late professor of chemistry and natural i^hilosophy ; 
with an account of the New York High School ; Society for the Prevention 
of Paupei-ism ; the House of Refuge ; a7id other institutions. Com]}iled 
from ati autobiography, and other sources. (New York : Robert Carter 
and Brothers, 1859.) 



CHAPTER XV 
SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 

The two leading types of American secondary school are 
now before us. Their rivalry and interplay have lent much 
of interest to our education of this grade during the past two 
generations. But the period that we now have under con- 
sideration was marked by the appearance, in a smaller way, 
of other schools, some of them variants from the academy, 
and some of them representatives of older European types. 

In some portions of the present territory of the United 
States, the beginnings of Catholic education date far back in 
the period preceding the Revolution. The earlier annals 
of Louisiana, for example, show some stray gleams of strong 
educational interest. Father Cecil, a Capuchin monk, is said 
to have opened a school for boys in the early part of the 
eighteenth century. The seminary of the Ursuline nuns 
near New Orleans was opened in 1727, and seems to have 
exercised a very beneficent influence on the early life of the 
colony.^ 

After the Revolution, the immigration of Roman Catholics 
of various nationalities, chiefly Irish at first, assumed con- 
siderable proportions. By the middle of the nineteenth 
century, the influx of Catholic candidates for American citi- 
zenship, Irish, German, and others, became so large as to cause 
great political disturbances. As soon as possible after the 
setting up of their diocesan government in this country (1790), 
the Catholics went about the opening of parochial schools, 
together with institutions of secondary education and semi- 
naries for the training up of young men for the priesthood. 

1 Fay, Education in Louisiana, ch. 1. 



324 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Their schools of secondary education were generally estab- 
lished under the direction of various teaching orders. 

The Jesuits had made long-continued efforts to keep alive 
Catholic educational institutions in Maryland. One of the 
most notable of their achievements in colonial times was 
the conduct of a school at Bohemia Manor, about the middle 
of the eighteenth century. Here Charles Carroll of Carroll- 
ton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was edu- 
cated, together with his cousin, John Carroll, the first 
Catholic Bishop of Baltimore. John Carroll received his 
later training in Europe, at the Jesuit college of St. Omer, 
and himself entered the order. He returned to America 
shortly before the outbreak of the war for independence. 
At this time the Society of Jesus was not only in disfavor 
with some of the chief civil powers of Europe, but was under 
the ban of the church as well. Such Jesuits as remained in 
Maryland appeared only in the capacity of secular priests. 

Father Carroll earnestly desired a seminary for theological 
training, and he at one time held the opinion that the classi- 
cal preparation needed by prospective priests might very well 
be secured in such secondary schools as were already at 
hand. As a result of travels through the new states and 
conversation with others of the same faith, his attitude in 
this matter changed. He became convinced that the exist- 
ing academies were so intensely Protestant that young 
Catholics could not attend them without danger to their 
Catholic principles. He accordingly took steps looking to 
the establishment not only of a seminary for the recruitment 
of the priesthood, but also of a classical school. The out- 
come was Georgetown Academy. 

The chapter convened by Dr. Carroll at Whitemarsh, in 
1786, framed the following resolves, by way of a beginning : 

" 1. That a school be erected for the education of youth, and 
the perpetuity of the body of clergy in this country. 

" 2. That the following plan be adopted for the carrying the 
same into execution : 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 325 



"Plan of the School 

"1. In order to raise the money necessary for erecting the afore- 
said school, a general subscription shall be opened immediately. 

" 2. Proper persons shall be appointed in different parts of the 
continent, West India Islands, and Europe, to solicit subscriptions 
and collect the same. 

" 3. Five Directors of the school, and the business relative 
thereto, shall be appointed by the General Chapter. 

" 4. The moneys collected by subscription shall be lodged in 
the hands of the aforesaid Directors. 

" 5. Masters and tutors to be procured and paid by the Directors 
quarterly, and subject to their direction. 

"Terms of the School. 

" 1. The students shall be boarded at the Parents' expense. 

" 2. The pension for tuition shall be £10 currency per annum, 
and is to be paid quarterly, and always in advance. 

" 3. With the pension the students shall be provided with mas- 
ters, books, paper, pens, ink and firewood in the school. 

"4. The Directors shall have power to make further regulations, 
as circumstances may point out necessary." ^ 

Before the academy could be fully established, the District 
of Columbia had been set apart as the seat of the national 
government, and the site selected for the school was found 
to occupy a very advantageous position of proximity to the 
capital city. A suitable building was erected, and the insti- 
tution was opened in September, 1791. It was virtually a 
school of the Jesuits from the start ; and after the rehabili- 
tation of the order it was placed under their management, 
in 1805. In 1815 it was authorized by Congress to grant 
academic degrees. 

The first student enrolled in the Georgetown Academy 
was William Gaston, afterwards distinguished in public 

1 Memorial of the first centenary of Georgetoion College, p. 10. 



326 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

life. During the first years of its existence, the school 
seems to have been intended especially if not exclusively 
for Catholic students. About 1796 it was thrown open 
freely to those of other faiths, and began to receive a con- 
siderable number of Protestants. The two sons of Bushrod 
Washington were sent to it. A notable day in the early 
history of the school was the occasion of a visit from George 
Washington. The Father of his Country was greeted with 
enthusiasm. A formal address of welcome was delivered, 
and a commemorative poem was read by Eobert Walsh. 

In the meantime, Bishop Carroll's desire for a seminary 
had been satisfied, a small company of Sulpitians having 
established such an institution at Baltimore in 1791. The 
Sulpitians also established St. Mary's College at Baltimore, 
which was chartered by the Maryland legislature in 1805.^ 

The Academy of the Visitation was opened at George- 
town in 1798, and entered upon a career of large influence 
in the education of girls. There is much of human interest 
in the early history of this school which has been well 
brought out in the published accounts of its career. The 
three " pious ladies " by whom it was established encoun- 
tered endless difficulties, and it was not till eighteen years 
after the beginning that their conventual life was fully 
settled.^ 

A little later there began another widely influential Cath- 
olic movement for the education of girls, the story of which 
is also full of interest. Mrs. Seton, the wife of an American 
merchant, was travelling with her husband in Italy, when 
his death left her a widow among strangers and far from 
her native land. She was treated with much kindness, and 
after a time became a convert to Catholicism. After her 
return to her American home, she sought for ways in which 
she might be of service to the church and useful to those 
about her. The accounts which have been handed down 
represent her as a woman of unusually high character and 

Qentf-nary of St. Mary' s Seminary of St, Sulpice, pp. 1-11. 
- Laturop, a story of courage. 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 327 

intelligence, and of great efficiency in the management of 
affairs. She gathered a few girls about her for instruction. 
Then a gift of land near Emmitsburg, for educational pur- 
poses, opened a way for the enlargement of her plans. She 
organized the American society of Sisters of Charity (1811). 
The house of this order, at Emmittsburg, soon came into high 
favor as a place for the education of girls ; and colonies of 
sisters were sent out from it to organize similar establish- 
ments in different portions of the country. They took 
charge of Nazareth Academy near Bardstown, Kentucky, as 
early as 1812. St. Mary's Academy, in New York City, was 
opened by them in 1835.^ 

Bardstown, Kentucky, became, early in the nineteenth 
century, a great centre of Eoman Catholic influence in the 
west. The diocese of Bardstown was erected in 1808. In 
addition to Nazareth Academy, already referred to, Loretto 
Academy, for girls ; Calvary Academy, also for girls ; and St. 
Joseph's College and Seminary, were established in or near 
Bardstown within the ten or twelve years next following. 

A summary of Catholic education in this country in 1830 
shows that it was then represented by seven ecclesiastical 
seminaries, ten colleges and collegiate institutions, several 
academies for boys, twenty nunneries to which female 
academies were attached, besides numerous primary and 
charity schools. The Catholic population of the country 
was then estimated at about half a million. Considerable 
aid had been received from Europe for the promotion of 
Catholic education.^ 

The Jesuits steadily increased the range of their activity, 
as time went on, in the domain of both secondary and colle- 
giate education. They were prominent in the early Catho- 
lic movement in Kentucky. In 1846 the Kentucky Jesuits 
were invited by Bishop Hughes (afterwards the first Arch- 

^ Brunowe, a famous convent school. Considine, Chronological account, 
p. 15, 

2 Quarterly Register and Journal of the American Education Society, II., 
p. 229. 



328 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

bishop of IsTew York), to take charge of the new St. John's 
College at Fordham, which has been an important centre of 
Jesuit educational activity since that time. This institution, 
formally opened by Bishop Hughes in 1841, was at first 
under the presidency of Father McCloskey, who later 
became the first American cardinal. It was empowered 
to grant academic degrees in 1846.^ 

A Catholic seminary, erected at Mt. St. James, near Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts, in 1840, by Father James Fitton, a 
missionary priest, became in 1843 the College of the Holy 
Cross. It was placed under the direction of the Jesuit 
Fathers, and was incorporated by the state in 1865. It is 
the oldest Catholic college in New England.^ 

An institution which has exercised a great influence over 
Catholic secondary and higher education in the western 
states, the University of Notre Dame, at Notre Dame, 
Indiana, was founded in 1842 by the Superior General of 
the Congregation of the Holy Cross. It was incorporated 
by the legislature of Indiana in 1844.^ 

The Brothers of the Christian Schools, members of one 
of the most notable European orders established for the 
education of children, opened their first school on this 
continent at Montreal, in 1838. Soon after they are found 
in Baltimore and in New York. Tlie Brothers, while engag- 
ing actively in the conduct of elementary schools in this 
country, early entered the field of secondary education. 
Their De La Salle Academy was opened in New York in 
the year 1848, They established the Academy of tlie Holy 
Infancy at Manhattanville in 1853. Ten years later this 
institution was raised to collegiate rank, receiving a charter 
under the title of Manhattan College.* 

Numerous other schools of secondary or combined secon- 
dary and higher education were organized before the Civil 

1 CoNSlDiNE, Chronological account, pp. 15-19; Taafe, a^^. John's College, 
passim ; Catalogue of the college. 

'^ Historical sketch of the College of the Holy Cross. 

8 Catalogue of the University. 

* Ravelet, Blessed cle la Salle, passim ; Considine, op. cit., pp. 22-23, 
25-26. 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 329 

War, under the management of the societies already referred 
to, or of other religious orders within the Catholic church, or 
of the secular clergy of that church. 

In the second quarter of the nineteenth century, convent 
schools for girls seem to have come to wide popularity, not 
only among Catholics, but in some Protestant circles as 
well. It would be impossible in this sketch to mention by 
name any considerable number of these schools. But two 
or three may be referred to in addition to such as have 
already been named. 

The Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur were first established 
in this country at Cincinnati in 1840. A community of 
Ladies of the Sacred Heart was settled in New York in 1841, 
under the government of Madame de Galitzin. They opened 
the same year their Academy for Young Ladies, which was 
soon removed to Astoria, Long Island, and then to Man- 
hattanville. This order had been founded by Madame 
Barat, in Paris, at the opening of the nineteenth century, 
expressly for the education of young women.^ A little 
later, several members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame 
came to this country from Bavaria and began their labors 
in the Institute de Notre Dame in Baltimore. They had 
prepared themselves for their duties by taking a teachers' 
training course, and passing the city teachers' examination 
in Munich. Their society was incorporated by the legis- 
lature of Maryland, in 1864, for educational purposes. A 
few years later, they secured a valuable tract of land in 
the suburbs of Baltimore, and proceeded to erect a college 
for women, which was to be known as Notre Dame of 
Maryland. This college was empowered to grant academic 
degrees, by act of the legislature in 1896.^ 

The schools which have been mentioned ' were probably 
among the best of the earlier Catholic schools for young 
women, though no attempt is here made to estimate their 

1 Life of the Venerable Madeleine Barat, chaps. 2, 8, 11, and 12. CoNSl- 
DINE, op. cit., pp. 19-20. 

2 Letter from the Directress of the College, and the Annual catalogue. 



330 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

relative standing. It is not clear to what extent the ordi- 
nary convent schools in the earlier days gave instruction of 
a secondary grade. A good deal of their teaching must have 
been such as would now be called elementary. And there 
was probably some ground for the complaint that they 
devoted relatively too much attention to the mere accom- 
plishments which the social standards of the time required 
young ladies to have mastered, and not enough to such 
solid learning as was thought fit for boys. 

We may readily conclude, however, from the crusade 
against pettiness in girls' education which was waged by 
Emma Willard and Mary Lyon and those who thought and 
wrought with them, that convent schools were not the only 
schools found wanting in this respect. Noah Webster, writ- 
ing of Connecticut in 1806, referred to "academies for 
young ladies, in which are taught the additional branches of 
needlework, drawing, and embroidery." These pursuits 
were referred to as additional to the ordinary academy 
studies ; but it is to be feared that more attention was paid, 
in many cases, to the trimmings than to the foundation 
material of an education. Catholic schools for girls and 
those of other denominations and of no denomination as 
well, have been making their way painfully out from under 
the domination of petty ideals during the past two genera- 
tions. An interesting part in his movement has been borne 
by the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur, whose first estab- 
lishment in this country was briefly noted above. Forty- 
three convents are now maintained by these sisters, with 
numerous schools and colleges. Their labors have recently 
culminated in the establishment of Trinity College in 
Washington, which has been described as " the first fully 
equipped college for girls under Catholic influence."^ 

The forward movement in Catholic secondary education 
which has taken place within the generation just past will 
be noticed in a later chapter.^ 

1 Cf. A golden jubilee of education. 

2 I am indebted to the Right Rev. Thomas J. Conaty, Rector of the 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 331 

Among the several Protestant denominations, during the 
period we have been considering, the conviction was gaining 
ground that religious differences ought not to divide our 
people in the great national concern of public education. 
The early high schools and many of the contemporary acad- 
emies were much alike in that a positive religious element 
was present in them, while they were still undenominational 
in character. The Catholics objected to such schools on the 
ground that their " undenominationalism " was in fact unde- 
nominational Protestantism, To most Protestants and to 
many other citizens having no religious affiliations, such 
schools appeared to give the strongest assurance of the 
maintenance of religious freedom, and so in the end of politi- 
cal freedom. There came, in time, to be among our people 
a really passionate devotion to the public schools, as embody- 
ing such hopes and aspirations as these, and this feeling 
greatly promoted the building up of our public high schools. 

Yet the several Protestant denominations were never 
unanimous in their attitude toward schools and education, 
and in the most of them earnest efforts were put forth to 
secure the establishment and maintenance of denomina- 
tional schools. These efforts met, too, with a large measure 
of success. The secondary schools of the Protestant Epis- 
copal church may be taken as representative of this move- 
ment. They were making interesting beginnings in the 
earlier half of the nineteenth century. But since the build- 
ing up of highly influential Episcopalian schools is one of 
the marked characteristics of the period following the Civil 
War, a consideration of this topic will be deferred till we 
come to the chapter on Recent Tendencies. 

Daniel Defoe's project of a military academy found a 
far-away realization in the establishment of such an institu- 
tion by our national government, at West Point, in 1802. 

Catholic University of America, for helpful suggestions in connection with 
the sketch of Catholic secondary education begun in this chapter and contin- 
ued in chapter XVIII. 



332 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The impressive centennial celebration of our Military Acad- 
emy is a recent memory. This school was hardly more 
than an establishment for military apprenticeship during 
the first ten years of its existence. Then, under stress of 
war, and in accordance with repeated recommendations of 
a few far-sighted men, the institution was made into some- 
thing more like a school of engineering and military science. 

Within the next few years some strong men found a 
place in its corps of instruction. Claude Crozet became 
professor of engineering. It is claimed that he first intro- 
duced the use of the blackboard into this country, besides 
making other important improvements in his branch of in- 
struction at the Military Academy. Captain Alden Par- 
tridge, an early graduate of the institution, after officiating 
for a time as professor of mathematics, and later of engineer- 
ing, became superintendent of the Academy. He was a 
man of ideas and of personal force ; but he was not in 
harmony with the policy laid down for the institution, and 
in 1817 he was succeeded in the superintendency by Major 
Sylvanus Thayer. Major Thayer was at the head of the 
institution for sixteen years, and did much to bring it up to 
that high place which it has now held for many years.^ 

The plan of instruction at West Point took strong hold 
upon many intelligent minds. A system of education which 
could send out so vigorous and efficient a type of manhood, 
was deemed worthy of wider application. So the national 
Military Academy came to have a numerous progeny. Its 
ideals influenced the instruction in the Central High School 
of Philadelphia and the New York Free Academy ; and 
other military schools were organized in several places. 

Captain Partridge, after his resignation from the army, 
founded in 1819 the " American Literary, Scientific and 
Military Academy," which has had a migratory and varied 
existence. It was first established at Norwich, Vermont. 
It was removed to Middletown, Connecticut, and then re- 
turned to Norwich. In 1866 it was again removed, to 

I Park, West Point and the U. S. Military Academy, passim, 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 333 

Northfield, Vermont, where it still abides. It was chartered 
in 1834 as Norwich University. From 1850 to 1880 it was 
conducted under Episcopalian auspices. Then it became 
non-sectarian, and for four years bore the title of Lewis Col- 
lege. Its old name was restored in 1884, and it was made 
virtually a state military institution. 

The fact that Admiral Dewey was educated in this school 
has brought it prominently before the public in recent years. 
The founder, Captain Partridge, seems to have been deeply 
impressed with the value of a military training, and to have 
possessed some remarkable qualifications for the position of 
leader, instructor, and commander of boys. But his plan 
of education was conceived on such a scale that it could not 
well be carried into full execution. The announcement 
which he issued in 1820 declared his intention to offer a 
course of instruction in the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, 
and English languages ; in composition, logic, history, and 
ethics ; and in an immense range of subjects coming within 
the general scope of mathematics, physics, engineering, and 
military science. He added that, "The military exercises 
and duties will be so arranged as not to occupy any of the 
time that would otherwise be devoted to study ; they will 
be attended to at those hours of the day which are generally 
passed by students in idleness, or devoted to useless amuse- 
ments, for which they will be made a pleasing and health- 
ful substitute." 

Another of the substitutes for " useless amusements " pro- 
vided in this academy was an occasional long tramp across 
the country. Captain Partridge's expeditions of this sort, 
which he led in person, were in high favor with his boys. 
One of them even extended from Middletown all the way to 
the National Capital. Whether consciously or not. Captain 
Partridge was carrying into practice Milton's proposal that 
young men should travel over their own land and become 
acquainted with its military and industrial advantages.^ 

^ Ellis, Norwich University, passim. Captain Partridge's criticism of the 
education prevalent at the time of the establishment of the Norwich Academy 
is given in the Am. Journ. Ed,, XIII., pp. 54-56. 



334 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The military type of education soon came into high favor 
in the southern states. Captain Partridge founded the 
Virginia Literary, Scientific, and Military Institute at Ports- 
mouth, in 1839. The same year the Virginia Military Insti- 
tute was established at Lexington, following the general 
lines of the Academy at West Point. This West Point of 
the south has had a remarkable history, which is almost as 
well known as that of our national Academy. General 
Francis H. Smith was for many years at its head, and gave 
it its academic organization. His long service is held in 
honored memory. And with it is joined the memory of the 
ten-year instructorship, so diversely significant to the insti- 
tution, of that indifferent teacher and consummate soldier, 
Stonewall Jackson.^ 

The South Carolina Military Academy was established in 
1842. It has been shown that its earlier history was closely 
interwoven with the political history of the state. Military 
stores had been gathered, in the Arsenal at Columbia and 
the Citadel at Charleston, to provide against possible public 
needs. The Nat Turner insurrection and the Nullification 
troubles a little later had suggested such provision. A guard 
was maintained at state expense at each of these posts, until 
some far-sighted citizens conceived the idea that the money 
devoted to the maintenance of such guards might profitably 
be devoted to the maintenance of military schools, the cadets 
being then charged with the duty of mounting guard as 
might be necessary. A similar project had been carried into 
effect at the Virginia Military Institute. The Academy 
was organized upon these lines, and consisted of the Citadel 
school at Charleston and the Arsenal school at Columbia. _ 

Up to the time of the closing of this academy, in 1864, its 
graduates numbered two hundred and forty, including four 
who became brigadier generals. Hugh S. Thompson, the 
distinguished governor of the state and member of the 

1 Official Register of the Institute. Interesting reminiscences of this Insti- 
tute appear in a recent work, The end of an era, by John S. Wise. (Boston : 
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1901.) 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 835 

national Civil Service Commission, was a graduate of the 
school in the class of 1856.^ 

Military education soon came to great popularity in the 
south, and schools of this sort were multiplied before the 
breaking out of the Civil War. Our national provision for 
military education received a much needed rounding-out in 
the establishment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, in 
1845. This act renders memorable the term of George 
Bancroft in the office of Secretary of the Navy." 

Another movement which assumed considerable propor- 
tions in the earlier half of the nineteenth century was that 
having for its object the union of studies with manual labor. 
There was much in the educational thought of the latter half 
of the eighteenth century which pointed the way to such a 
movement. The doctrines of Eousseau and the earlier ex- 
periments of Pestalozzi suggest themselves at once. But a 
more immediate prompting came from the labors of Philip 
Emanuel Fellenberg, sometime companion and fellow-laborer 
with Pestalozzi. 

Fellenberg has been pretty generally forgotten in this 
country, but two or three generations ago his influence here 
was very great. Sympathizing as he did with the educa- 
tional aspiration of Pestalozzi, his character and methods 
were very different. It is small wonder that the two 
could not long work together. In 1806 Fellenberg opened 
an institution at Hofwyl, in Switzerland, for school instruc- 
tion in combination with manual labor in the field. His 
students devoted their mornings to study and their after- 
noons to farming. The Hofwyl Institute continued its op- 

1 Meriwether, Higher education in South Carolina, ch. 4 ; Thomas, His- 
tory of the South Carolina Military Academy, passim. 

2 See SoLET, The United States Naval Academy ; Benjamin, The United 
States Naval Academy. 

The early history of our Military and Naval Academies overlaps the fields 
of both secondary and higher education. These earlier institutions, however, 
led the way to the establishment of a class of military schools of purely 
Becondary grade after the time of the Civil War. 



336 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

erations for nearly forty years; and commanded the attention 
of the best men, the world' over, who were interested in 
educational reform. 

The name of Fellenberg appears in some American schools 
which were established within this period, and there can be 
no doubt that the American movement received much of its 
impetus directly from Hofwyl. But the sentiment which 
inspired it did not all emanate from Fellenberg. We find 
some breathings of it in this country before the close of the 
eighteenth century, and notably in Judge Phillips' plan for 
the academy at Andover. It was indeed in the air of both 
Europe and America at that time.^ 

Among the many consequences of the theoretical " return 
to nature," was the growth of a desire to bring those higher 
human interests which found expression in art and litera- 
ture, into touch with the common affairs of life. Men and 
women who had gone far in the self-conscious " culture " of 
the age, felt a homesickness for the work-a-day world which 
they had left behind. Something of this sort is observable 
in the Brook Farm experiment, in which the notion of a 
union between education and manual labor found its most 
interesting embodiment. It is a sentiment oft-recurring iu 
human history, but it never quite found itself till the latter 
part of the eighteenth century gave it a place in the world 
of thought. 

There was another side to this sentiment. Those who 
are at home with the plain people of this land, particu- 
larly with such as carry into their daily work-of-hands a 
steady aspiration after the things of the spirit, must have 
observed among them a habit of thought which has close 
connection with that noted above : a fine loyalty to their 

1 Eleazar Wlieelock had his students who were preparing to become mission- 
aries among the Indians initiated into the practical knowledge of husbandry. 
Diary of David McClure, p. 7. This was in 1764. 

At Cokesbury College, located at Abingdon, Maryland (1785-1795), the 
first Methodist college in the world, the students were not allowed to play, 
but instead were exercised in agriculture, taken in connection with the reading 
of Vergil's Gcorgics, and in architecture and gardening. Steiner, Cokesbury 
College, p. 21. 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 337 

daily associations which prompts them to wish that the 
higher interests may be found somehow bound up with the 
actualities of their experience, and not set apart in a sep- 
arate world. The poems of Eobert Burns interpreted this 
feeling. In their different kinds and degrees, a goodly 
number of later writers have done such a service in our 
own generation ; while in the domain of art it has found 
very noble expression in the better work of our modern 
realists. It can hardly be doubted that this sentiment 
combined with others to give popularity to the manual 
labor schools of the first half of the nineteenth century. 

It was in the third and fourth decades of that century that 
the manual-labor education movement was at its height. 
The survey of Education and literary institutions ^ already 
referred to tells of institutions of this sort at Eeadfield, 
Maine (the Maine Wesleyan Seminary), at Manchester, 
Vermont, at Eochester and Whitestown, oSTew York, at 
Sergeantville, New Jersey (Mantua Manual Labor Institute), 
at Wake Forest, North Carolina (projected by Baptists and 
soon to be opened), at Haymount, North Carolina (a similar 
institution, founded by the Presbyterians), at Marietta, Ohio, 
and in various other sections of the country. Provision for 
manual labor in connection with several colleges is also re- 
ported. There seems to have been especial interest in the 
effort to put theological students at work in field and shop, 
partly with a view to defraying a portion of the expense of 
their education, and partly with the thought that they 
might thus be brought into touch with actualities. 

The enthusiasm for manual labor schools subsided in the 
eighteen-hundred forties, more because of the practical diffi- 
culties which the project involved than because of any doubt 
as to its inherent excellence.^ But the idea has not been 
wholly lost. It has entered into the scheme of agricultural 
education embodied in the Morrill Act of 1862 — an act 
through which our national government has profoundly 

1 Quarterly Register, May, 1833. 

2 Cf. Meriwether, Higher education in South Carolina, p. 51. 



338 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

influenced the higher education of the country. It has 
entered also into the manual training movement of later 
years : a very different movement, to be sure, but one which 
accomplishes some of the ends which the earlier movement 
set out to accomplish. And the manual labor school itself 
has survived or been revived in a few institutions of our 
own time, as in the Miller Manual Labor School, opened in 
1878, in Albemarle County, Virginia. 

The Swiss reformers had a large following in this country 
before influences of a strictly German origin had begun to 
be widely felt. It was not until the thirties or forties of 
the nineteenth century that German ideas gained currency 
here, and the full force of the German example was hardly 
felt till after the revolutionary disturbances of 1848. Yet 
some connection with German culture had been established 
in earlier years. 

George Ticknor and Edward Everett had visited Europe, 
and studied at the University of Gottingen. They brought 
back something of the German spirit, to the quickening of 
Harvard College. Joseph Green Cogswell had also gone to 
Gottingen in 1816, and George Bancroft in 1818. Other 
travellers gave occasional hints of the German universities 
and public schools. The first real opening of American 
eyes to the importance of German educational theory and 
practice came, however, in the midst of the Educational 
Revival. The English translation of Victor Cousin's report 
on Prussian schools was widely circulated in this country. 
The report of observations at first hand by Calvin E. Stowe 
(1836), Alexander Dallas Bache (1839), and Horace Mann 
(1843) greatly deepened this impression. The University of 
Michigan, under the guidance of President Tappan, availed 
itself freely of suggestions drawn from the practice of Ger- 
man universities. The German example influenced our 
elementary schools, not so much in those days by any 
infusion of German methods, as by the suggestions of 
German organization and of the German provision for 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 339 

universality of instruction. In our secondary education, 
too, there was very little direct imitation of German models, 
but the stimulus of German excellence began to prick the 
American spirit of emulation. 

There were numerous schools opened during this period 
under purely private management. Educational ideas, 
whether European or American in their origin, were play- 
ing merrily upon the minds of men. The prompting to 
educational experiment came out in school undertakings, 
some of them sane and wholesome, some whimsical, and the 
most of them full of human interest. Only a few of these 
private schools can be mentioned here without overcrowding 
the chapter, and the bare mention must suffice in the case of 
those referred to. 

George Bancroft and Joseph Green Cogswell established 
the Eound Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts, an 
institution which was intended to transplant into this coun- 
try the best traditions of the great secondary schools of Ger- 
many, France, and England. Some of Fellenberg's ideas, 
too, had their influence on this undertaking. Bancroft with- 
drew from the school in 1830, but it was continued under 
Dr. Cogswell through the six years following. It saw 
varying fortunes, both educational and financial, but, so 
long as it lasted, it never sank to the commonplace, never 
failed to be interesting and significant.-^ 

The classical school of Mr. Christopher Cotes at Charles- 
ton, South Carolina (about 1820 to 1850), filled an impor- 
tant place in the education of that region. Its pupils came 
from families prominent because of their wealth and social 
station, and the school came to be regarded as an aristo- 
cratic institution. Mr. Cotes was an Englishman, and the 

^ Bellows, The Hound Hill School; Cogswell and Bancroft, Pro- 
spectus of a school. There are delightful notes on this school in Donald G. 
Mitct'ell's American lands and letters, p. 36 ff. ; and in The life of Joseph 
Green Cogswell. Still others are given by Horace E. Scudder in his Group of 
classical schools. See Harper s Monthly, LV., p. 705. Mr. Scudder refers 
to reminiscences in T. G. Appleton's A sheaf of papers. 



340 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

precedents of the English public schools dominated his sys- 
tem of instruction. He could not share the American taste 
for oratory of the revolutionary type, and such declamation 
as his boys went through was a perfunctory affair, at least 
so far as the master was concerned. Thorough instruction 
in the studies preparatory to college ; sound training in 
algebra under the master himself ; the employment of good 
assistant teachers ; French taught by a born Frenchman ; 
the use of philosophical apparatus, including a large tele- 
scope ; a faithful application, on occasion, of a good birch 
rod : such are some of the characteristic features of this 
school, as recalled by Dr. G. E. Manigault.^ 

Gideon F. Thayer established the Chauncy Hall School, 
in the city of Boston, in 1828. This school was projected on 
an unusually large scale for the time. It is said that divis- 
ion of labor among the several instructors was carried fur- 
ther than in any other private school in New England. 
Even before this school was opened, Mr. Thayer, in an 
earlier educational undertaking, had introduced the use of 
apparatus for physical exercise. The Chauncy Hall School 
was supported wholly by tuition fees, but many poor boys 
were educated there free of charge. Mr. Thayer's connec- 
tion with the school ceased in 1855.^ 

" The Gunnery " was established by Frederick W. Gunn, 
at Washington, Connecticut, in the latter part of the eigh- 
teen-hundred thirties. There was in it so much of aboli- 
tionism and other radical tendencies that it aroused great 
opposition, and was for a time discontinued. It was re- 
opened in 1847, and had a picturesque and generally 
remarkable career. Its characteristics, as they were under 
Mr. Gunn's administration, were set forth by Mr. J. G. Hol- 
land in his story of Arthur Bonnicastle. Senator 0. H. 
Piatt taught for a time with Mr. Gunn ; and Henry Ward 

1 Meriwether, Higher education in South Carolina, pp. 30-37. Dr. Man- 
ip;ault's reminiscences are full of interest. Paul H. Hayne, the poet, was for 
a time a pupil in this school. 

2 Am. Journ. Ed., IV., pp. 613-621 ; Gushing, Historical sketch. 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 341 

Beecher, Mrs. Stowe, and General John C. Fremont were 
among the prominent patrons of the Gunnery in its earlier 
days.^ 

A chapter which began with notes on the rise of Catholic 
schools may fitly close with some account of the founding 
of Girard College. For this school, though founded by a 
man of Catholic antecedents, represents in many ways the 
antithesis of the Catholic view of education. It illustrates 
the profound movement in American education away from 
ecclesiastical ideals. And because it set forth the non-ecclesi- 
astical view in perhaps the most extreme embodiment 
which it had found on American soil, it called forth an 
extensive controversial literature, and so had its part in 
shaping educational convictions. 

Stephen Girard, " Mariner and Merchant," was a man of 
the hard-headed, thrifty, and benevolent type that seems in 
those days to have found its true home in the city of 
William Penn and Benjamin Franklin. It was early in the 
revolutionary struggle that Girard came from his French 
home to Philadelphia, a young man then in his twenties. 
He soon became one of the influential business men of the 
town. It is said, but the statement is open to doubt, that 
he was the first American to become a millionaire. When he 
died, in 1831, at the age of eighty-one, the estate which 
he left was valued at not far from $7,500,000. He set 
an example, which American millionaires have been re- 
markably ready to follow, of the devotion of vast sums of 
money to public education. It is not only the magnitude 
of his educational endowment, but the marked characteris- 
tics of the institution founded upon it, which call for notice 
in this chapter. 

This French-American was familiar with the revolution- 
ary French philosophy of the eighteenth century. Four of 
his ships were named the Eousseau, the Voltaire, the Hel- 
vetius, and the Montesquieu. The secular spirit of this 

1 See Steiner, Education in Connecticut, pp. 59-61. 



342 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

philosophy found in him a ready response. That he was 
not positively hostile to religion is shown by his contribu- 
tions to various religious societies. But he was an ardent 
believer in the American doctrine of religious freedom ; and 
he deplored sectarian controversy. He was in sympathy 
with that rising sentiment which exalted morals above 
dogmatic religion. The educational realism of Rousseau 
and Eousseau's followers fell in with his shrewd common 
sense ; and quite as naturally, he was interested in seeing 
boys trained up for occupations in which they might earn 
an honest livelihood. 

Such was the man who in addition to legacies to the 
public schools of Philadelphia and various benevolent in- 
stitutions already in existence, and in addition to other lega- 
cies to relatives and dependents, bequeathed over two 
million dollars for the founding of an institution devoted to 
the maintenance and education of poor, male, white, orphan 
children. The fund was given in trust for this purpose to 
the mayor, aldermen, and citizens of Philadelphia. 

The paragraph of the will relating to the studies of the 
college is of sufficient importance to be given in full. 
" They shall be instructed," it reads, " in the various 
branches of a sound education, comprehending reading, writ- 
ing, grammar, arithmetic, geography, navigation, surveying, 
practical mathematics, astronomy ; natural, chemical and 
experimental philosophy, the French and Spanish languages, 
(I do not forbid, but I do not recommend the Greek and 
Latin languages) — and such other learning and science as 
the capacities of the several scholars may merit or warrant : 
I would have them taught facts and things, rather than 
words or signs ; and especially, I desire, that by every 
proper means a pure attachment to our Picpublican Institu- 
tions, and to the sacred rights of conscience, as guaranteed 
by our happy constitutions, shall be formed and fostered in 
the minds of the scholars." 

The provision for non-ecclesiastical management of the 
institution is expressed in the following terms : 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 343 

" I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minis- 
ter of any sect whatsoever, shall ever hold or exercise any station or 
duty whatever in the said College ; nor shall any such person 
ever be admitted for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the prem- 
ises appropriated to the purposes of the said college : — In making 
this restriction, I do not mean to cast any reflection upon any sect or 
person whatsoever ; but as there is such a multitude of sects, and 
such a diversity of opinion amongst them, I desire to keep the 
tender minds of the orphans, who are to derive advantage from 
tliis bequest, free from the excitement which clashing doctrines and 
sectarian controversy are so apt to produce ; my desire is, that all 
the instructors and teachers in the College, shall take pains to instil 
into the minds of the scholars, the purest principles of morality, so 
that, on their entrance into active life, they may from inclination 
and habit, evince benevolence toward their fellow creatures, and a 
love of truth, sobriety, and industry, adopting at the same time, 
such religious tenets as their matured reason may enable them to 
prefer." 

Many difficulties were encountered in getting this unique 
institution under way. The buildings for its habitation, 
begun in 1833, were not finished till 1847.^ The directors 
appointed under the trust invited Francis Lieber, another 
eminent immigrant, to draw up a constitution for the pro- 
posed college. This commission was executed with great 
care, after a study of the literature of various educational 
and eleemosynary institutions of England and the Continent. 
Professor Lieber recommended that the college be made a 
polytechnic school and a seminary for the training of teach- 
ers ; and he urged upon the directors the importance of 
sending a special commissioner to Europe to make an exami- 

1 Mr. Girard, like Thomas Jefferson, interested himself in plans for the 
housing of the institution which he founded. He left minute specifications 
regarding the buildings to be first erected. Mr. Thomas U. Walter, the architect 
who was entrusted with the carrying out of these plans, succeeded, in spite of 
the limitations imposed, in producing a very noble group of buildings on 
classical lines. This is one of the most notable of the earlier attempts in 
this country to work out an extensive and unitary architectural composition, 
Mr. Walter was later charged with the remodelling of the Capitol at Washing- 
ton, a work in which he achieved a magnificent success. 



344 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

nation in person of such institutions as might throw light 
upon their undertaking. 

In accordance with this suggestion, Alexander Dallas 
Bache was appointed to the presidency of the college, and 
was dispatched on a tour of investigation among the leading 
European countries. Professor Bache devoted two years to 
this preliminary inquiry. The report of his observations, 
published soon after his return, was not only of great value 
to the institution which he represented, but proved also one 
of the most important of those accounts of European edu- 
cation which did so much toward the great Educational 
Awakening in America. 

The next-of-kin to Stephen Girard made an effort to break 
the will, so far as it related to the endowment of the college, 
and their claim was carried to the Supreme Court of the 
United States. This case was the more notable from 
the fact that Daniel Webster was of the counsel for the 
plaintiffs, and the decision of the court was rendered by 
Justice Joseph Story. The court unanimously sustained 
the validity of the trust. The next-of-kin had based their 
claim in part upon the contention that the foundation of a 
college on such principles and exclusions as Mr. Girard had 
laid down was derogatory to the Christian religion and 
therefore void, as being against both the common law and 
public policy. The court decided against this contention. 
It held that: 

" The exclusion of all ecclesiastics, missionaries, and ministers 
of any sort from holding and exercising any station or duty in a 
college, or even visiting the same ; or the limitation of the in- 
struction to be given to the scholars, to pure morality, general 
benevolence, a love of truth, sobriety, and industry; are not so 
derogatory and hostile to the Christian religion as to make a devise 
for the foundation of such a college void according to the constitu- 
tion and laws of Pennsylvania." -^ 

1 Vidal et al. v. Girard's executors, 2 Howard 127. The decision was 
handed down in the January term, 1844. 



SPECIAL MOVEMENTS 345 

On New Year's day of 1848 the college was opened, under 
the presidency ®f Joel Jones. Its educational organization 
was under three divisions, namely, primary schools, nos. 1 and 
2, and the " principal department." In the department last 
named, instruction was given in some of the higher branches 
of an English education, and in the French and Spanish 
languages.^ 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

Ou early Catholic schools : 

Clements, James. History of the Society of Jesus. 3 vols. Baltimore : 
John Murphy & Co., 1878. 

Historical sketch of the College of the Holy Cross. Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts. 1843-83. Worcester : Press of Charles Hamilton, 1883. 
Pp. 43. 

1791-1891. Memorial volume of the centenary of St. Mary's Seminary of 
St. Sulpice, Baltimore, Md. Baltimore : John Murphy & Co., 1891. 
Pp. 8 + 164. 

Ravelet, Ab-Mand. Blessed J. B. de la Salle, founder of the Institute of 
the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Paris, 1888. Pp. 32 + 694. 

The life of the Venerable Madeleine Barat, foundress of the Society of the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus. Drawn and abridged from the French by Lady 
Georgiana Fullerton. New York : O'Shea & Co., 1900. Pp. 10 + 403. 

See also titles imder Brtjnowe, Considine, Notre Dame University, 
Georgetown College, St. Francis Xavier College, St. John's College, and 
Sisters of Notre Dame in the general bibliography. 

Notices of the Papal Church in the United States. In Quarterly Register 
and Journal of the American Educational Society, 11., pp. 189-199. 

Notices of the Papal Church in the United States. In The Quarterly 
Register of the American Education Society, III., pp. 88-100. 

The principal source of the information presented in these two articles is 
the Annates de P Association de la Propagation de la Foi. 

Historical and statistical view of Roman Catholics in the United States. 
Prepared for the Quarterly Register and Journal, chiefly from original 
sources and from special correspondence. In Quarterly Register, etc., 
II., pp. 220-229. 

1 Description of the Girard College, passim. Semi-centennial of Girard 
College, passim. 



346 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The three titles last given refer to Protestant accounts of the Catholic 
educational movement, contemporary with an early stage of that move- 
ment. 

Father Considine (op. eit., p. 5) refers to the expressed purpose of 
Bishop Spalding of Peoria to secure the preparation of a general history 
of Catholic education in the United States, and adds that the carrying out 
of the plan has been committed to Brother Maurelian, P.S.C. It is to 
be hoped that this design may be carried to a happy completion. Brother 
Maurelian was manager of the Catholic educational exhibit at the World's 
Pair of 1893, and compiled an important Catalogue of that exhibit. 

On the doctrines and practice of Pellenberg, we have an interesting 
anonymous volume : 

Letters from Hofwyl by a parent, on the educational institutions of de 
Pellenberg. With an appendix containing Woodbridge's sketches of 
Hofwyl, reprinted iTom the Annals of Education. London : Longman, 
Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1842. Pp. 12 + 372. 

The writer calls attention to articles on the same subject in vols. XXXI. 
and XXXII. of the Edinburgh Bevieto. See also : 

Educational establishment of Mr. de Pellenberg, at Hofwyl. In Am. 
Journ. Ed.., III., pp. 591-596 ; and 

Outline of the normal course of instruction at Hofvfyl. Id., XIII., pp. 
323-331. 



CHAPTEE XVI 
LATER STATE SYSTEMS 

However important other educational systems and educa- 
tional movements may have been, the general trend of the 
nineteenth century set strongly in the direction of an educa- 
tion under the control of public corporations. There has 
been another tendency, intimately connected with this. The 
demand for systems of schools under full public control has 
carried with it the demand for consecutiveness in our state 
systems of education, from the lowest grades to the highest. 
We have been moving toward an ideal somewhat like that 
of the Einheitsschule. We have found ourselves more or less 
consciously striving toward the standard set up by Huxley 
when he said, " No system of public education is worth the 
name of national unless it creates a great educational ladder, 
with one end in the gutter and the other in the university." 
These aspirations have come to their most complete expres- 
sion in states having state universities — but about two- 
thirds of the states in the Union are of this class. They are 
aspirations which have grown up with a new ideal of social 
relations, a new democracy, which in its full development is 
peculiar to the nineteenth (and the twentieth) century. 

We saw that in the old colony days the need of a middle- 
grade education, except for those intended for college and 
for one of the learned professions, was not generally recog- 
nized. Society was still largely organized on distinct levels. 
People still spoke of " the quality." That is, the difference 
between the professional and directive class on the one hand 
and the common people on the other was apparently accepted 
as qualitative, in a sense that we hardly realize. The col- 



348 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

leges, with the grammar schools leading up to them, were 
for the higher class. The educational provision for the lower 
classes extended only to schools of elementary grade, and 
was very scanty and fragmentary at best. Between the two 
systems there was no organic connection. 

The revolutionary period and the years next following saw 
a gradual breaking up of the earlier social strata, and the 
rise of a middle class to prominence and influence. The 
newly recognized educational needs of this class were now 
met by the academies, especially in such of their courses as 
did not aim at preparation for college. 

With the advance of nineteenth and twentieth century 
democracy, the social levels of earlier days have been upset. 
No one speaks of social classes now, unless it be under his 
breath. Our present-day society knows no levels : we recog- 
nize no generic distinction between its several grades. Its 
extremes may be much farther apart than were those of an 
earlier age, but the lowest and the highest occupy their sev- 
eral places in one continuous gradation of social differences. . 

The lovers of diagrammatic representation, whose number 
is not at all declining, may find in the following scheme a 
passable symbol of the change which has taken place : 

I. Colonial society. 
II. Society of the middle jjeriod. 



III. Society of the later times. 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 349 

The old grammar schools were for those on the plane a b 
and for such as were making their way up to that eminence. 
The earlier academies were for those on this same plane, 
now represented by the line g h, but were in particularly in- 
timate connection with the restless middle line ij, which has 
already lost its sense of the horizontal. The high schools 
belong out and out to this jostling middle line, which at an 
early day has imposed its own slanting disposition on the 
other members of the scheme. There is little need to add 
that the diagram at best can tell but a small part of the 
story ; or to raise the insistent question of our time : After 
the line on n, what next ? 

This brief survey of social change may help us a little to 
understand some things which have a bearing on our subject. 
It suggests one cause of that extreme restlessness which 
characterizes our modern society. On this social inclined 
plane, whoever is not on his way to the top is perforce on 
his way to the bottom. Our systems of education have 
gradually adjusted themselves to such a state of things. 
There has appeared accordingly a widespread purpose to link 
our schools together from the lowest to the highest ; to put 
every kindergarten and primary school on a line which 
leads, without by-way or break, straight up to the university. 

This purpose has come only gradually to full conscious- 
ness ; but in the course of a century the ideal proposed in 
the Indiana state constitution of 1816 has become the char- 
acteristic aim of American educational organization : " A 
general system of education, ascending in regular gradation 
from township [district] schools to a state university wherein 
tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all." Such a 
purpose has found repeated expression, not only in the 
educational schemes of our statesmen and teachers, but 
in legislative enactments. A few citations will serve for 
illustration. 

The legislature of Tennessee declared, in 1817, that, "In- 
stitutions of learning, both academies and colleges, should 
ever be under the fostering care of this legislature, and in 



350 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

their connection with each other form a complete system of 
education." 1 

Thomas Jefferson, replying to the charge that he was push- 
ing university education to the neglect of the elementary 
schools, wrote to Mr. Cabell : 

" Nobody can doubt my zeal for the general instruction of the 
people. Who first started that ideal I may surely say myself. 
Turn to the bill in the revised code which I drew more than forty 
years ago, and before which the idea of a plan for the education of 
the people generally had never been suggested in this State. There 
you will see developed the first rudiments of the whole system of 
general education we are now urging and actiug on ; and it is well 
known to those with whom I have acted on this subject that I have 
never proposed a sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of 
instruction. Let us keep our eye steadily on the lohole system^ 

President Henry P. Tappan, of the University of Michigan, 
presented a statesmanlike report to the regents of that insti- 
tution, in 1856, in which he discussed the "true position" 
of the university, " and its relation to our entire system of 
public education." 2 He said: 

" An entire system of public education comprises three grades 
and can comprise but three grades : the primary, the intermediate, 
and the university. . . . The primary school comes first. . . . 
All human learning begins with the alphabet, . . . 

" The second grade occupies the period of youth — of adolescence 
or growth. This is tlie period when the foundations of knowledge 
and character can be most amply and securely laid. . . . 

" But let it be remembered that the intermediate grade embraces 
only the apprenticeship of the scholar. . . . Hence the necessity 
of universities, as the highest form of educational institutions.^ . . . 

1 Quoted by Blackmar, Federal and state aid, p. 265. 

2 The text of this report may be found in Superintendent Ira Mayhew's 
Reports of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Michigan for 
the years 1855-6-7 : with accompanying documents. Lansing, 1858, pp. 155- 
184. 

* President Tappan's definition of a university, which follows this para- 
graph, is significant. It marks a great change from the view of a college 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 351 

" The highest institutions are nfecessary to supply the proper 
standard of education ; to raise up instructors of the proper qualifi- 
cations ; to define the principles and methods of education. . . . 

" Nothing is more evident than that the three grades of educa- 
tion — the primary, the intermediate, the university — are all alike 
necessary. The one cannot exist, in perfection, without the others ; 
they imply one another. . . . 

" It is to the honor of Michigan that she has conceived of a com- 
plete system of public education running through the three grades 
we have discussed above. Nor do these grades exist merely in 
name. She has established the primary grade of schools and made 
them well nigh free. She has laid the foundation of an institution 
which admits of being expanded to a true university. In former 
days she had her ' branches ' belonging to the intermediate grade ; 
and now we see rising up those invaluable institutions, the ' union 
schools,' belonging to the same grade. We say not that legislation 
has adequately reached the entire system, or made provision for its 
development ; but the idea of the entire system is abroad among 
the people ; it has not been absent from our legislation ; it has 
appeared in the reports of superintendents and visitors, and in 
other documents ; and the people, at this moment, unaided by any 
special appropriation, are organizing above the district school, the 
best schools of the intermediate grade, less than a college, which 
have yet existed among us ; and are erecting large, tasteful, and 
convenient edifices for their accommodation. These ideas, spon- 
taneously working in the minds of the people, these spontaneous 
efforts to create schools of a higher grade must determine future 
legislation, and indicate the grand point to which our educational 
development is tending." 

It is this large conception of education as one great 
public interest, from the lowest schools to the highest, 
which we need as a background for any consideration of 
the development of state systems of secondary education. 
We have already looked into the establishment of those 
state systems in which the educational unit was the 

presented by President Clap, of Yale College, in the eighteenth century. 
President Tappan says, "A university is a collection of finished scholars in 
every department of human knowledge, associated for the purpose of advanc- 
ing and communicating knowledge." — Op. cit., p. 161. 



352 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

academy. Such systems belong to the latter part of the 
eighteenth and the earlier half of the nineteenth century. 
The great movement in the establishment of state systems 
which make the high school their unit, belongs to the period 
following the Civil War. But highly important pioneering 
had been done at a period much earlier than this. 

The first general provision for anything answering to our 
idea of a high school, which has thus far come to light, was 
contained in the Connecticut law of 1798. Previous to this 
time, the requirement that each of the county towns should 
support a grammar school had been in force. This require- 
ment was now discontinued. In its place, a provision was 
adopted to the effect that any school society (district) might 
by a two-thirds vote establish a higher school, " the object 
of which shall be to perfect the youth admitted therein in 
reading and penmanship, to instruct them in the rudiments 
of English grammar, in composition, in arithmetic, and 
geography, or, on particular desire, in the Latin and Greek 
languages, also in the first principles of religion and moral- 
ity, and in general to form them for usefulness and happi- 
ness in the various relations of social life." ^ This law 
seems to contemplate, not a high school proper, but rather 
a mixed institution — an advanced primary or English 
grammar school for the most of the pupils, and a Latin 
grammar school for a select few. 

A similar provision had been adopted two years earlier 
for the first school society of Farmington, Connecticut, but 
Latin and Greek were not included in its list of studies. 
This was to be a central school, supported by a pro rata 
assessment on the public moneys assigned to the several 
districts into which the society miglit be divided.'"^ 

In Massachusetts, as we have seen, the law requiring 
grammar schools in the towns was so far weakened, in 1824, 
that towns having a population of less than five thousand were 
allowed to substitute for such school an elementary school, 
if the people should so determine by vote at a public elec- 

1 Rcpt. Comr. Ed. for 1892-93, II., pp. 1253-54. 

2 Id., p. 1255. 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 353 

tion. This is the low-water mark of public school senti- 
ment in Massachusetts, with reference to the secondary- 
grade of instruction. In 1826 it was enacted that every 
town having five hundred families should provide a master 
to give instruction in the history of the United States, book- 
keeping, geometry, surveying, and algebra, and every town 
having four thousand inhabitants, a master capable of giving 
instruction in Latin and Greek, history, rhetoric, and logic.^ 
This act has seen some vicissitudes since its first adoption, 
but it marks the beginning of continuous provision in Mas- 
sachusetts for a state system of high schools. 

It is diiScult to trace the early statutory provisions for 
high schools in many of the states. At the time when the 
older schools of this sort were coming into being, special 
legislation was not held in such disfavor as in more recent 
times. The high schools, as institutions of the municipali- 
ties, were often erected under special statutes and charters 
framed for each city separately, without reference to any 
general enactment, or even to any general principle. Their 
legal history must be sought for in the maze of such legis- 
lation. Yet it will not be forgotten that through just such 
devious ways a general policy of the states with reference 
to such institutions was gradually built up. 

In some instances a measure drawn in the first place for 
a single community found so great favor that it was made 
the model for statutes framed for the benefit of other com- 
munities, or even for general enactments. For example, the 
"Akron law," passed by the Ohio legislature in 1847, pro- 
vided for a graded school system in the city of Akron, 
including a " central grammar school," which was in reality 
a high school. The provisions of this act were immediately 
extended to the city of Dayton, and in 1848 to every incor- 
porated town or city in the state, whenever two-thirds of 
the qualified voters should petition the town or city council 
in favor of such extension.^ 

1 Laivs of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ch. 143, sec. 1. 

2 A history of education in the state of Ohio, pp. 113, 114. 

23 



354 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

In 1848 the third district in Somersworth, New Hamp- 
shire, was empowered by the legislature to establish and 
maintain a high school. Later in the same year, the provi- 
sions of this act were extended to all school districts which 
might adopt it in regular form ; and it was further enacted, 
"that any school district, when the number of scholars 
should exceed 100, might vote to keep such high school or 
schools as the interests of education might require." ^ 

Other general enactments appear at a comparatively early 
date. They were, however, permissive in their provisions, 
and not compulsory as was the Massachusetts law. State 
Superintendent Benton, of Iowa, recommended graded or 
"union" schools in 1848; and legal permission for the 
organization of higher grades in the public schools of that 
state was granted in 1849. In 1857 more ample provision 
was made for the higher schools, " provided that no other 
language than the English shall be taught therein, except 
with the concurrence of two-thirds " of the board of educa- 
tion. The general school law of 1858 authorized county 
high schools.^ 

The first school law of California, adopted in 1851, pro- 
vided for the establishment of high schools by any city, 
town, or village having more than four hundred scholars, on 
petition of two-thirds of the legal voters within such district, 
or by two school districts which might unite for this pur- 
pose while remaining separate in other respects. Not more 
than one-fourth of the state and county moneys received by 
any district might be expended for the support of such high 
schools. Districts were authorized also to tax themselves 
for the support of schools of this grade, but might not 
expend for this purpose more than one-four ch of the whole 
amount raised by local taxation for schools. High schools 
were required under this act to teach, in addition to the 
studies of the grammar schools, "bookkeeping, surveying, 
drawing, music, political economy, Greek and Latin, equal 

1 Bush, History of education in Neiv Hampshire, p. 19. 

2 Parker, Higher education in Iowa, pp. 27, 31, 37. 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 355 

to that what [sic] is required for admission into college, 
Spanish and French." ^ These provisions were soon sup- 
planted by others less liberal in character, but the early 
school legislation of the state generally made a way for pub- 
lic schools of this grade. 

In New York the general school law of 1864 authorized 
the board of education of any " union free school district to 
establish in the same an academical department whenever, in 
their judgment, the same is warranted by the demand for such 
instruction." Such academical departments were made sub- 
ject to the board of regents in all matters pertaining to 
their course of education, and were to enjoy such privileges 
in the university as had been granted to the academies. 
Provision was made for the formal adoption of existing 
academies by boards of education' and the transference of 
institutions so adopted from private to public control.^ 

In Maryland the old state academy system was swept 
away by a law of 1865, and a system of county high 
schools substituted for it. But the change was too radical 
to be fully carried out. Later legislation provided for the 
renewal of state aid to academies, which continued to exist 
alongside of the system of county high schools.^ 

While such early and liberal enactments may be found in 
a few of the states, in others high schools were established 
in large numbers without explicit warrant of law. The 
school law of these states commonly provided in general 
terms that the studies to be pursued should be determined by 
the local board of school trustees or directors. A minimum 
list of studies was sometimes prescribed in the statute ; and 
it was commonly held that the school board might provide 
for the teaching of other subjects, including such as were 
distinctly of secondary grade. 

Objection was made repeatedly to this practicfe. As was 

1 California statutes, 1851, ch. 126, art. 5, sees. 3, 6, 7, 8 ; art. 7, sec. 2. 

2 Hough, Historical and statistical record of tlte University of the State of New 
York, pp. 28, 29. 

^ SoLLERS, Secondary education in the state of Maryland (Chapter 2 of 
Steiner's History of education in Maryland), pp. 66-68. 



856 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

seen in the history of the school system of Virginia,^ the 
secondary school is the one grade of instruction which has 
the most precarious hold on public support. The question 
as to the authority of local boards to establish high schools 
without express statutory provision for such schools, was 
finally decided in the affirmative by the supreme court of 
Michigan in the case of Charles E. Stuart et al. vs. School 
District No. 1 of the village of Kalamazoo, commonly known 
as the Kalamazoo high school case. Inasmuch as this case 
established the precedent for similar cases in other states, 
while setting the question at rest for the state of Michigan, 
it is of great importance in the annals of our secondary 
education. The opinion of the court was prepared by the 
eminent jurist, Thomas M. Cooley. The right of a school 
board to employ a superintendent of schools was involved 
in the case, and this also was affirmed by the court. The 
decision in this case illustrates admirably the strong 
tendency which we have noted, in our educational history, 
toward a complete system of schools, largely supported by 
taxation, and under public control. It seems fitting for 
this reason that space be devoted here to the following 
somewhat extended passages from the opinion rendered by 
the court : ^ 

" The bill in this case is filed to restrain the collection of such 
portion of the school taxes assessed against complainants for the 
year 1872, as have been voted for the support of the high school in 
that village, and for the payment of the salary of the superin- 
tendent. While, nominally, this is the end sought to he attained 
by the bill, the real purpose of the bill is wider and vastly anore 
comprehensive than this brief statement would indicate, inasmuch 
as it seeks a judicial determination of the right of school authorities, 
in what are called union school districts of the state, to levy taxes 
upon the general public for the support of what in this state are 

1 See p. 208, note 2. 

2 30 Michigan 69. The text of the decision appears.'but in badly mangled 
form, in the Eeport of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction of 
Michigan for the year 1874. 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 357 

known as high schools, and to make free by such taxation the 
instruction of children in other languages than the English." 

Certain bearings of the case, which are of local rather 
than general interest, are discussed at considerable length. 
The court then continues : 

" The more general question which the record presents we shall 
endeavor to state in our own language, but so as to make it stand 
out distinctly as a naked question of law, disconnected from all 
considerations of policy or expediency, in which light alone we are 
at liberty to consider it. It is, as we understand it, that there is 
no authority in this state to make the high schools free by taxation 
levied on the people at large. The argument is that while there 
may be no constitutional provision expressly prohibiting such 
taxation, the general course of legislation in the state and the 
general understanding of the people have been such as to require 
us to regard the instruction in the classics and in the living modern 
languages in these schools as in the nature not of practical and 
therefore necessary instruction for the benefit of the people at 
large, but rather as accomplishments for the few, to be sought after 
in the main by those best able to pay for them, and to be paid for 
by those who seek them, and not by general tax. And not only 
has this been the general state policy, but this higher learning of 
itself, when supplied by the state, is so far a matter of private 
concern to those who receive it that the courts ought to declare it 
incompetent to supply it wholly at the public expense. This is in 
substance, as we understand it, the position of the complainants in 
this suit. 

"When this doctrine was broached to us, we must confess to 
no little surprise that the legislation and policy of our state were 
appealed to against the right of the state to furnish a liberal educa- 
tion to the youth of the state in schools brought within the reach 
of all classes. "We supposed it had always been understood in this 
state that education, not merely in the rudiments, but in an enlarged 
sense, was regarded as an important practical advantage to be 
supplied at their option to rich and poor alike, and not as some- 
thing pertaining merely to culture and accomplishment to be 
brought as such within the reach of those whose accumulated 



358 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

wealth enabled them to pay for it. As this, however, is now so 
seriously disputed, it may be necessary, perhaps, to take a brief 
survey of the legislation and general course, not only of the state, 
but of the antecedent territory, on the subject." 

The review of the educational history of Michigan which 
follows is full of interest. It includes a consideration of 
the educational provision contained in the ordinance of 
1787 ; the act of 1817 for the establishment of the " Catho- 
lepistemiad or University of Michigania;" the university 
act of 1821, which repealed that of 1817, but instituted a 
university with power " to establish colleges, academies, and 
schools depending upon the said university ; " the act of 
1827, "for the establishment of common schools," which 
followed very closely the early state and colonial school 
legislation of Massachusetts ; the law of 1833, which neither 
required nor prohibited the establishment of a higher grade 
of school; the constitution of 1835, which provided for a 
state university with branch schools, and " contemplated 
provision by the state for a complete system of instruction, 
beginning with that of the primary school and ending with 
that of the university ; " the proposal of State Superintendent 
Pierce for a system of public instruction based on the 
systems of Prussia and New England, and intended to 
furnish in the common schools " good instruction in all the 
elementary and common branches of knowledge, for all 
classes of [the] community, as good, indeed, foi' the poorest 
hoy of the state as the rich man can furnish for his children 
with all his wealth ; " the discontinuance of the branches of 
the university, and the growth of tlie union schools, which 
in some measure took their place ; and finally, the constitu- 
tion of 1850. Of this last-named document, the court 
remarks that, 

" The instrument submitted by the convention to the people 
and adopted by them provided for the establishment of free 
schools in every school district for at least three mouths in each 
year, and for the university. By the aid of these we have every 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 359 

reason to believe the people expected a complete collegiate educa- 
tion might be obtained. . . • The inference seems irresistible that 
the people expected the tendency towards the establishment of 
high schools in the primary-school districts would continue until 
every locality capable of supporting one was supplied. And this 
inference is strengthened by the fact that a considerable number 
of our union schools date their establishment from the year 1850 
and the two or three years following." 

The opinion of the court as to the legality of the high 
school is finally summed up in the following words : 

" If these facts do not demonstrate clearly and conclusively a 
general state policy, beginning in 1817 and continuing until after 
the adoption of the present constitution, in the direction of free 
schools in which education, and at their option the elements of 
classical education, might be brought within the reach of all the 
children of the state, then, as it seems to us, nothing can demon- 
strate it. We might follow the subject further and show that the 
subsequent legislation has all concurred with this policy, but it 
would be a waste of time and labor. We content ourselves with 
the statement that neither in our state policy, in our constitution, 
or in our laws, do we find the primary school districts restricted in 
the branches of knowledge which their officers may cause to be 
taught, or the grade of instruction that may be given, if their 
voters consent in regular form to bear the expense and raise the 
taxes for the purpose." 

One of the most notable decisions following the finding 
of the Michigan court in this case was that of the su- 
preme court of Illinois in the case of H. W. Powell et al. 
vs. the Board of Education, etc., which virtually established 
the position of the high schools of Illinois in the public 
school system of that state.^ 

About the time when the Kalamazoo case was in the 

1 In England the board schools have shown of late a tendency to push up 
into the higher grades of instruction, much as the common schools of this 
country have done. A case analogous to the Kalamazoo high school case has 
come up recently in an English court, and an adverse decision has been 
rendered. 



360 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

courts, some of the later state systems of secondary educa- 
tion were beginning to take definite shape ; and long-estab- 
lished systems began also to take on new activity. Before 
turning attention to the systems then newly organized, it 
will be w^ell to note the later developments in Massachu- 
setts and New York, for in their different directions these 
states have taken the lead in the movement of recent times. 

Massachusetts has led the way in the making of such 
provision that an education of secondary grade is open, free 
of charge, to every boy and girl in the commonwealth. 
Other states have followed Massachusetts in this matter, 
and it appears that one of the most distinctive marks of the 
high school system-making of the past few years, is the con- 
scious effort 'to make free secondary education accessible to 
all. The Massachusetts law making this liberal provision 
dates from 1891. The extension of high school privileges 
has run parallel with the consolidation of the less populous 
school districts, and the extension of regular supervision to 
all portions of the state. 

According to a recent report (1898) there were 353 towns 
in Massachusetts, of which number 185 had each a popula- 
tion large enough to bring it under the legal obligation to 
maintain a high school of its own. Seventy Others main- 
tained high schools, though not required to do so by the 
education act. All others, not maintaining high schools of 
their own, were required, under the law of 1891, to pay the 
tuition fees of qualified students, living within their limits, 
who should go elsewhere for instruction of high school 
grade. The school authorities of such towns were further 
authorized, but not required, to pay the cost of transporting 
such students to and from the schools which they might 
attend. 

In order to carry this scheme into effect, it was found 
necessary to extend aid to the poorer towns from the 
treasury of the state. The distribution of state moneys 
appropriated to this use is conditioned upon a direct inquiry 
into the educational facilities of different portions of the 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 361 

state by agents of the Board of Education. So it happens 
that this board, which in the days of Horace Mann sus- 
tained an advisory relation only to the schools, has seen a 
considerable increase in its administrative powers. 

The high schools of the state are required to maintain 
each a four-year course, of forty weeks to the year. They 
must prepare their students for admission to the state nor- 
mal schools, and to higher scientific schools and colleges. 
According to the report of the Board of Education presented 
to the legislature of the state in January, 1902, there were 
261 of these high schools. In them nearly 1,500 teachers 
are employed. All but nine of these schools were kept from 
nine to ten months in the year, but many of them fell short 
of the full ten months. In 1897 Massachusetts paid 
112,390,638 for public schools, of which amount $2,400,000, 
or 19 per cent, was for high schools. The total municipal 
tax in the state that year was $15.23 on each $1,000 of 
property valuation. Of this, $4.72 was for public schools, 
10.91 of which was for high schools. These figures include 
the cost of school buildings along with the current expense 
for school maintenance.^ 

If the University of the State of New York had a rather 
vague existence in the earlier days, there has been no doubt 
of its place among the actualities in more recent times. 
The spirit of organized activity has been at work in the 
institution, with all the stirring, straining, and collision of 
diverse purposes which commonly attend that spirit's opera- 
tion. The strongly centralized administration which this 
unique establishment embodies has been railed at and glori- 
fied, but it has gone on organizing, and organizing still more, 
until it has become a force to be reckoned with in the 
making of our higher grades of instruction. It can hardly 
be doubted that this university now presents the most 
thoroughly organized state system of secondary education 
which has yet been developed on American soil. 

1 MA.RTIN, Massachusetts public school system, lecture 5. Hill, How far 
the public high school is a just charge upon the public treasury. Reports of the 
Board of Education, 



362 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Five of the six departments into which the work of the 
university is divided may be disregarded in a study of 
secondary education. We are here concerned only with 
the high school department, which has to do with high 
schools and academies, and the interests of secondary 
education generally. 

The college and the high school department of the uni- 
versity are under a single department director. He is 
assisted by nine inspectors of schools, one of whom is 
employed as an inspector of apparatus, and by a large staff 
of examiners. On the basis of reports made to this depart- 
ment, the regents distributed in 1901 a total of 1292,311.81 
to the secondary schools of the state. Formerly a portion 
of the money distributed by the regents was apportioned on 
the basis of credentials obtained by pupils in the schools 
who had passed regents' examinations — a method, that is, 
of " payment by results." The report of the director of the 
high school department for 1898 says of the examinations ; 

" In June, 1898, the secretary 'stated to the regents that 10 years' 
experience had confirmed his views, given to the board in 1889, 
that examinations have the highest educational value and that the 
small minority which would abolish them are extremists. It is 
believed, however, that these tests would be more valuable if they 
were used for their educational value and not at all as a guide in 
distributing public money. Inspection will enable us in most 
cases to determine satisfactorily without regents' examinations 
whether a school is maintaining a standard deserving aid from 
state funds." 

In accordance with this recommendation the method of 
payment by results has been discontinued and apportion- 
ments are now made as follows : {a) SlOO is allowed to 
each school approved by the regents without regard to 
its size or special attainments ; (h) a sum not exceeding $250 
for the purchase of approved books and apparatus is allowed 
to each school raising for the same purpose an equal amount 
from local sources ; (c) the balance of the fund is distributed 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 363 

on the basis of total attendance of academic students, pro- 
vided that each student whose attendance is so counted 
must hold a "regents' preliminary certificate" for admission 
to the school, or the school must have been approved by two 
university inspectors, as having a higher entrance require- 
ment than the minimum prescribed for the preHminary cer- 
tificate. Of the $350,000 appropriated for this purpose 
under the present laws, about 20 per cent will be distributed 
under item (a), about 15 per cent under item (&), and about 
65 per cent under item (c). 

Eegents' examinations are held in January and June in 
seventy-three subjects, covering all the courses in the high 
school curriculum, and in March in twenty-six subjects only. 
In 1901 these examinations were taken by 699 of the 741 
secondary schools in the university. Each diploma issued 
by the regents to a graduate of a secondary school shows 
on its face the subjects in which its holder has passed 
regents' examinations. These diplomas are accepted in lieu 
of entrance examinations in the subjects which they cover 
by institutions of higher education not only in New York 
state but also generally throughout the United States. As 
the regents' preliminary examinations furnish the standard 
for admission to the secondary schools, their influence ex- 
tends to all the lower grades, and large numbers of pupils 
from the ungraded rural schools take these tests in the 
neicrhborincf hicjh schools and academies. 

A syllabus is issued by the regents for the guidance of 
instruction in university institutions. There is free consul- 
tation between the officers of the university and the instruc- 
tors in the schools with reference to the contents of this 
syllabus. An annual university convocation, in which the 
representatives of all divisions of the university meet for 
public discussion, forms one of the notable educational gath- 
erings of the country .1 

1 I am indebted to Mr. James Russell Parsons, Jr., secretary of the Uni- 
versity, for his courtesy in placing the latest statistics collected by his office at 
my disposal. The standard histories of the University are those of Hough 
and Sherwood. 



364 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

One of the first state systems of secondary ediication to 
be organized after the Civil War was that of Indiana. This, 
however, was virtually an " accrediting " arrangement, the 
administration of which was turned over to the state author- 
ities. It may more conveniently be considered when we 
come to an examination of the rise of the accrediting 
system. 

The Wisconsin system of free high schools was established 
in 1875. It provides for the maintenance of high schools by 
towns, incorporated villages, cities, or school districts con- 
taining incorporated villages or two-department graded 
schools within their limits. Two or more adjoining towns, 
or one or more towns and an incorporated village, may unite 
in establishing and maintaining a high school. These 
schools are managed by local high school boards, which are 
commonly, but not always, identical with the boards for 
elementary schools. They are supported primarily by local 
taxation, but a district is entitled to receive from the general 
fund of the state a sum not exceeding one-half the amount 
actually expended for instruction in the high school of such 
district, and not exceeding five hundred dollars in any one 
year ; provided the school has been kept in accordance with 
certain requirements prescribed by law, and provided further 
that the total amount paid from the state treasury for this 
purpose in any one year shall not exceed 1100,000. 

Such a school is under the direct inspection and oversight 
of the state superintendent. To receive state aid, a school 
must establish and maintain a course of study prescribed, or 
at least approved, by that official ; and must be taught by 
teachers whose certificates he has approved. The state 
superintendent issues a manual for the guidance of these 
schools, containing general suggestions, courses of study, 
an outline of subjects and methods of instruction, and the 
text of the high school law. He is assisted in the visitation 
and supervision which the law prescribes by an inspector of 
free high schools, whom he appoints. 

An effort has been made in Wisconsin to encourage the 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 365 

building up of township high schools in the less thickly 
settled portions of the state. This undertaking has thus far 
met with only a moderate degree of success. In the cities 
and towns of Wisconsin, the high schools are going steadily 
forward, under the system of state supervision. Within the 
past few years many of them have been housed in fine, 
new buildings, which are provided with excellent labora- 
tories for instruction in the natural sciences. Important 
beginnings have been made also in the equipment of schools 
for courses in manual training. ^ State aid, to the amount of 
$250 a year for any one school, is extended to such courses 
under special provisions of the high school law. There are 
now (spring of 1902) eight schools receiving such special 
aid ; while the whole number of state-aided high schools 
in the state is 222. Of these forty-eight have a three- 
year course, and the remainder a course four years in 
length. 

A large proportion of the schools having four-year courses 
are accredited to the University of Wisconsin. The accredit- 
ing system was introduced by the university in 1878, and is 
carried on independently of the state system of inspection. 
About a dozen of the largest and strongest high schools in 
the state are not included among those receiving state aid. 

The courses of study in these Wisconsin schools are com- 
monly designated as the English, the general science, the 
modern classical, and the ancient classical course. A given 
school will ordinarily establish the English course at first, 
and add the others from time to time in the order in which 
they have been named. 

Wisconsin took an important step in the passage of an act 
in the winter of 1901-02 providing for county schools of ag- 
riculture and domestic economy. These are to be secondary 
schools, having at the outset a two-year course of study. 
State aid to the amount of $2,500 is to be granted to each 
school established under the provisions of this law and 
approved by the state superintendent. Two such schools will 
be organized in the fall of 1902. 



366 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

" A line of work in elements of agriculture inay run through the 
entire two years ; another line in manual training for the boys, 
covering the use of wood-working tools, elementary blacksmithing, 
and including some work in the architecture of farm buildings will 
be given. Such high school studies as will be most profitable, and 
as can be carried in connection with the other subjects will also be 
taken. For the girls, a line of work in domestic science will run 
through the entire two years. They will also be given some man- 
ual training, and some instruction in horticulture and floriculture. 
They will take the same academic studies as the boys." -^ 

Minnesota has maintained a state system of high schools 
since 1881. At the head of this system stands the State 
High School Board, consisting of the superintendent of 
public instruction, the president of the University of Minne- 
sota, and a city superintendent appointed by the governor. 
This board appoints a high school inspector and a graded 
school inspector. Any public high school in the state may 
become a state high school. Such schools, to the number of 
not more than seven in any one county, are entitled to 
receive each the sum of Si, 000 annually from the treasury 
of the state. 

A state high school must admit students of either sex 
from any part of the state without charge for tuition, must 
provide a course of study covering the requirements for ad- 
mission to the University of Minnesota, and must be subject 
to the rules and open to the inspection of the high school 
board. This board determines, on the basis of the reports of 
its inspector, what schools are entitled to the bounty of the 
state. Provision is also made for state graded schools, of 
lower rank than the state high schools ; and for the promo- 
tion of such schools to the rank of state high schools when 
they have attained a suitable degree of advancement. 

The state high school board conducts annually a written 
examination of classes in the schools. The taking of this 

1 Letter from State Superintendent L. D. Harvey, to whom I am indebted 
for recent statistics of the Wisconsin system. Mr. Harvey published a val- 
uable Report on schools of agriculture and manual training, in 1901. 



LATER STATE SYSTEMS 367 

state examination is ordinarily optional with the school, and 
no grants of money are based on examination results. The 
state board may, however, require a school to take an exam- 
ination as part of the annual inspection. " The main purpose 
of state examinations," as set forth by the inspector of high 
schools in his report for 1898, " is not to test the students, 
but to promote the general efficiency of the schools." All 
state high schools are fully " accredited " by the university 
and the normal schools of the state, whether they have 
taken the examination or not. 

One interesting provision of the Minnesota law is that 
under which laboratory apparatus for the high schools is 
made at the state prison and sold to the schools at cost. 
But perhaps the most significant thing about the whole 
system is the encouragement it gives to high schools in 
the smaller towns. Communities all over the state tax 
themselves freely to supplement the bounty distributed by 
the state high school board. There are now (spring of 
1902) 129 of these high schools. The number is steadily 
increasing, and is expected to come near to 140 by the close 
of the current school year. 

Other state systems are slowly taking form. Already there 
are noteworthy enactments relating to secondary education in 
the statutes of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, 
Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Cali- 
fornia, and several other states. From the simple provision, 
usually found in state school laws, that the school authori- 
ties in districts of sufficient size may extend the course of 
instruction in their schools beyond the range of the elemen- 
tary branches, various states are going on to encourage the 
establishment of the higher schools by larger administrative 
units, and by union districts entered into for this express 
purpose by contiguous smaller districts. Special state funds 
are made available for the reinforcement of local enterprise 
in this matter ; and with the distribution of state funds goes 
some form of state inspection. Special provision is making 
for the encouragement of instruction in " domestic science " 



368 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

and in commercial and technical branches. Care is taken 
that even the more sparsely settled regions shall have 
schools which prepare students for admission to normal 
schools, colleges, and universities. The requirement of high 
qualifications on the part of teachers who aspire to high 
school positions, still lags behind other lines of this forward 
movement, but even in this particular progress may be 
noted. 

Massachusetts stands nearly if not quite alone in its 
requirement that high schools shall be established in all 
towns having a specified population. Such a requirement, 
however, is now of minor importance when communities all 
over the land are showing great zeal in the establishment of 
such schools apart from any legal prescription. The later 
requirement in Massachusetts that free secondary instruc- 
tion shall be made accessible to every boy and girl who is 
ready for such instruction, has set up a new standard for all 
of our states, the influence of which may be seen in much of 
our recent legislation. 

NOTE 

It is important that tliose who are seeking to secure legislation for the 
improvement of high schools in the several states should become familiar 
with the history of recent movements of a similar character in other parts 
of the country. Perhaps the simplest way to get a comprehensive view of 
this movement is to read the 

Digest of public school laws. liept. Comr. Ed., 1893-94, ch. 9, pp. 1063- 
1300; 

and in connection with this the annual 

Comparative summary and index of legislation, published by the University 
of the State of New York (Albany). 

Tiiese summaries make it easy to discover the states in which import- 
ant education bills have been passed, and facilitate the search for the 
text of such laws in the session acts of the several legislatures. Beginning 
with the year 1901, a supplemental bulletin is issued under the title, 
Revieio of legislation. 



CHAPTEE XVII 
RECENT TENDENCIES 

The study of the more recent tendencies in our secondary- 
education, leads us, almost before we are aware, into a 
consideration of our present educational status. In the 
chapters which follow, as in that just finished, the history 
of movements is mingled freely with accounts of present- 
day conditions. So enormous is the mass of facts which 
presents itself for review in this place that only a very 
superficial and selective survey can be taken. 

In general, we may say that the later movements have 
been mainly directed toward the better adjustment of our 
secondary schools (a) to schools above them and below ; 
(&) to the changing needs of American life ; and (c) to the 
individual capacities of the students found in those schools. 

These movements have been dominated by the American 
aspiration after completeness and consecutiveness in the 
organization of educational institutions ; by the determina- 
tion, that is, that there shall be no cul-de-sac in the educa- 
tional systems of the republic, but that instead every child, 
to the remotest district of our land, shall find the humble 
school of his neighborhood opening up into the higher 
schools, and so on up into the highest universities. This 
aspiration has led to some incongruities. Nevertheless, there 
is in it a lofty idealism and an inspiring greatness of pur- 
pose. We may justly regard it as one of the great, forma- 
tive influences at work in the making of the American 
character. 

In our public school systems the gap which has been 
bridged with the greatest difficulty is that between the high 

24 



370 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

schools and the colleges. The high schools were, as has 
been shown, an outgrowth of the elementary schools. Their 
relations with the schools below them have presented serious 
problems, which have called forth much discussion and 
made readjustment necessary ; and the end of all this surely 
is not yet. But the relations of the high schools with 
the colleges have been different, and very much more 
difficult. 

We take for our point of departure the period of the Civil 
War, or let us say a time not far from the middle of the 
nineteenth century. In the most of the leading states of 
the east, the chief, or indeed the only, provision for higher 
education was in institutions managed by private corpora- 
tions. In many of the newer states there were growing up 
universities under full state control. The growth of state 
universities was greatly accelerated by grants of land made 
under the Morrill act of 1862. But these universities were 
supported out of funds separate from those devoted to the 
common schools, and were controlled by separate adminis- 
trative boards. The requirements for admission to higher 
institutions of either sort were determined by the college 
faculties, with only incidental reference to the purely edu- 
cational problems confronting the secondary schools. The 
fitness of candidates for admission was determined by an ex- 
amination, conducted at the college, by college instructors, 
and covering the requirements which the college had pre- 
scribed. 

This system, to be sure, possessed great advantages. It 
compelled every school which would prepare students for a 
given college to come up to a definite scholastic standard 
imposed upon it from without. It exercised no authority 
over the schools, but exerted an influence which a prepara- 
tory school could not escape. Besides, the standard set for 
classes preparing for college had an indirect influence on 
classes in the same school which were pursuing other lines 
of study. So the most powerful single agency affecting the 
course and the methods of instruction in the better secondary 



RECENT TENDENCIES 371 

schools was for many years the entrance examinations of 
the several colleges. 

But there were evils attendant upon this system. When 
the excellence of a four-year course of school instruction was 
tested by a single examination at the end of the course ; 
this examination being conducted by the instructors in an- 
other, and often a remote institution, with sole reference to 
the plans and purposes of that institution ; it was inevitable 
that the lower school should become merely tributary in all 
essential particulars to the higher. The college examination 
was the chief end and aim of much of the work in the best 
courses offered by our secondary schools. There appeared a 
marked tendency to substitute a cramming process for real 
educational procedure. Teachers in secondary schools were 
too largely turned aside from the independent investigation 
of the essential problems of secondary education, to more 
petty inquiries as to the exact nature of the entrance exam- 
inations at certain colleges. It is clear that such a state of 
things did not answer to the organic continuity of instruc- 
tion which American social conditions seemed to demand; 
yet with all of the efforts at improvement put forth in recent 
years it has even now been remedied only in part. 

A change was, however, slowly coming over the entrance 
requirements of our colleges. Up to the time of the Civil 
War, eight " subjects " had found a place in the requirements 
of different institutions for admission to the regular, classical 
course, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. These 
subjects were Latin, Greek, arithmetic, geography, English 
grammar, algebra, geometry, and ancient history. Within 
the short space of six years, six new subjects were added to 
this list. These new subjects are enumerated as follows, 
with the time and the institution at which each made its 
first appearance : 

Modern history (United States), Michigan .... 1869 
Physical geography, Michigan and Harvard .... 1870 
English composition, Princeton 1870 



372 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

"" Physical science, Harvard 1872 

English literature " 1874 

Modern (foreign) language, Harvard 1875 ^ 

Another and more extensive change affecting admission 
requirements was the framing of alternative courses by the 
colleges, parallel with the classical course, and leading to 
some other baccalaureate than that in arts. A few scattered 
experiments with such parallel courses were made before 
the year 1850, but it was in the third quarter of the nine- 
teenth century that this movement first became general. 
The following table is intended to show when such courses 
were first offered, in some prominent institutions, as leading 
to an academic degree, and takes no account of those sub- 
sidiary courses which were sometimes offered with no prom- 
ise of a degree attached. In each of the cases here indicated, 
the degree was either that of Bachelor of Philosophy or that 
of Bachelor of Science : 

Brown, 1851, Ph.B. Michigan, 1853, B.S. 

Harvard (Lawrence), 1851, B.S. Columbia, 1864, Ph.B. 

Yale (Sheffield), 1852, Ph.B. Cornell, 1868, Ph.B., B.S. 

Dartmouth, 1852, B.S. Amherst, 1872, B.S. 

Eochester, 1852, B.S. Princeton, 1873, B.S. 

The requirements for admission to these courses generally 
omitted Greek, and included in its stead some other subject 
or subjects from the " modern " side. As time has gone on, 
these requirements have become much more flexible. Such 
changes not only tended to the broadening out of the stand- 
ard, classical course in the secondary schools, but they 
opened up also the prospect of college education to those 
who were pursuing other courses than the classical. The 

1 In this and the following account of changes in admission requirements, 
I am following Dr. Broomk's manuscript, already referred to. Dr. Broome 
has not extended his inquiry to all of the colleges, and there may have been 
instances of the introduction of some of these requirements at an earlier date 
than is here given, in some less prominent institutions. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 373 

range of direct college influence in the schools became ac- 
cordingly greater. 

If the high schools had kept to the purpose originally- 
proposed for the English Classical School at Boston, they 
would not have been affected by the earlier changes in col- 
lege admission requirements. But the high schools gravi- 
tated toward the colleges, as the academies had done before 
them. None of the many protests raised against this move- 
ment could check it for any length of time. It was, in fact, 
a thoroughly American movement. It answered to that 
broad, American logic which maintained that since any 
youth might rise to the highest offices, every youth should 
have the opportunity offered to him of rising to the highest 
education. 

The high schools, too, like the early academies, have ex- 
ercised some little influence on the colleges. There can be 
no doubt that, at a later period, college entrance requirements 
were somewhat modified by the desire of the higher institu- 
tions to meet the secondary schools half-way. 

The problem as it presented itself to those who laid the 
general interests of education to heart was this : How might 
a more vital relationship be established between the second- 
ary schools and the colleges, with a view to conserving the 
highest educational efficiency of both institutions ? One of 
the earliest and most notable attempts at its solution is the 
so-called accrediting system, introduced by the University 
of Michigan in 1871. Under this arrangement, a university 
admits to its freshman class without examination, such grad- 
uates of approved secondary schools as are especially recom- 
mended for that purpose by the principals of those schools. 
The system has met with great favor and has had widespread 
application. The United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion reported in 1896 that there were then 42 state univer- 
sities and agricultural and mechanical colleges, and about 
150 other institutions in which it had been adopted.^ 

It depends upon a purely voluntary agreement between 
1 Bept. Comr. Ed., 1894-95, II., i^p. 1171-1188. 



374 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

the secondary schools and the higher institutions. The 
college or university satisfies itself that the secondary school 
applying for such recognition is properly taught. Usually 
a committee of the faculty is sent to inspect the school, and 
the school agrees to submit itself to such inspection. Com- 
monly, too, students admitted on school credentials are 
understood to be on probation during the first term of their 
college course. It is the school rather than the indi- 
vidual that is examined ; and the inquiry relates chiefly to 
the vitality, intelligence, and general effectiveness of the 
instruction. 

Hardly any two institutions follow exactly the same 
method in the practice of accrediting schools. The Michigan 
system provided for inspection of each school by a com- 
mittee of the faculty, consisting of one or two members. 
On a favorable report from this committee the school v/as 
accredited for one, two, or three years according to the 
degree of established excellence which it presented. "With 
the spread of the system to other institutions, it has differ- 
entiated on the one hand in the direction of a more frequent 
and thorough-going inspection of schools, and on the other 
hand in the direction of less thorough inspection or none at 
all. Perhaps the lowest outcome of this differentiation is 
represented by the announcement of the authorities of one 
college that " Students bearing the personal certificates of a 
former teacher, concerning studies satisfactorily completed, 
will be given credit for the work they have done." ^ 

On the other hand, the highest grade of efficiency in 
university inspection is found in such a system as that 
maintained for fifteen years or more by the University of 
California. Here the accrediting of schools was put under 
the oversight of a committee of the Academic Senate, repre- 
senting the chief departments of instruction. All secondary 
schools within the state which applied for accrediting — 
public high schools, private schools, and institutions under 
corporate or ecclesiastical management — were visited each 

1 Ke^ft. Comr. Ed., 1894-95, IL, p. 1183. 



HE CENT TENDENCIES 375 

year under the direction of this committee by several mem- 
bers of the teaching force of the university. A given school 
was commonly so visited and inspected in the course of each 
year by instructors from each of the university departments 
of English, Latin, history, mathematics, and physics. In 
some instances the departments of Greek, modern languages, 
chemistry, and the biological sciences, or any one or more 
of them, were added to the list. In other cases the visitor 
from the department of English, for example, under a special 
arrangement, examined the school for the Latin department ; 
and other economical combinations were made from time to 
time. The heads of departments visited many schools in 
person; university instructors of various subordinate grades 
shared in this labor ; but so far as possible the assignment 
to such duty was limited to persons of considerable scho- 
lastic experience, and experience as a teacher in secondary 
schools was regarded as a qualification of no small impor- 
tance. The men who went out for the purpose of such 
visitation were at the time engaged in ordinary university 
instruction. The loss to their classes from the interruptions 
to continuous work caused by their occasional absence, was 
minimized by various devices. The expense of the visitation 
was borne by the university. 

The California plan has undergone some little modification 
within the past two years, in the direction of simpler and 
more economical administration. Yet the account given 
above represents, in the main, the system as it is still in 
operation. Under this system a school may be "accred- 
ited " without a favorable report in all subjects ; but the 
report must be favorable in a sufficient number of subjects to 
indicate that the school is a real educational institution. 
Superior excellence in a single isolated department is not re- 
garded as constituting a claim to a place on the university 
list. 

/ The purpose of a well-considered accrediting system is 
not primarily to provide a means whereby applicants for 
admission to college may escape a dreaded examination. It 



376 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

is rather to encourage and build up real educational institu- 
tions of secondary grade. This result the system has un- 
doubtedly tended to bring about. It has brought our 
schools of secondary and higher grades into closer articu- 
lation and sympathy one with another. It has tended to 
release the teachers in secondary schools from the domina- 
tion of merely formal examination requirements, and has 
turned their attention to vital matters in the domain of 
education. 

On the other hand, the system has had and still has seri- 
ous disadvantages. It tends to foster a too prevalent dis- 
position to dispense with or evade all tests of accurate 
scholarship. Nor does it altogether put an end to the evil 
of subjecting the secondary schools to tests and influences 
somewhat foreign to the real purposes of secondary educa- 
tion. The inspection cannot be so conducted that all 
departments of all schools shall be tried by uniform or even 
consistent standards of excellence. It entails, too, a heavy 
burden uj)on the higher institution : it demands large 
expenditures of money and of the time of university in- 
structors. 

In several institutions the drain upon the university 
funds and the reduction of the efficiency of instruction in 
university classes, consequent upon the regular inspection 
of schools by university professors, has been felt to be in- 
tolerable. And a way of escape has been found through 
the employment of a special inspector, who is charged with 
the whole or the greater part of the visitation of schools. 
Such a step has been taken by the parent of this system 
— the University of Michigan. The California system, 
too, is in a stage of transition, and the changes which 
have already been made in it have greatly reduced the 
annual expenditure for its maintenance. 

It would be hard to overestimate the good already accom- 
plished by the accrediting system, in spite of all defects. 
It has given to communities a means which had been lack- 
ing, of discovering the deficiencies, and likewise the excel- 



RECENT TENDENCIES 377 

lences, of their schools. It has greatly aided the better 
principals and teachers in their efforts to maintain high 
standards of scholarship. It has quickened the intellectual 
life of schools and of whole communities, by the immediate 
touch of university ideals. In some states, as in Missouri, 
it has virtually called into being a new and better and more 
general provision for secondary education, within a very few 
years. In some states, under its influence, the improve- 
ment of the teaching force in such schools has gone forward 
at an unprecedented rate. 

We have in this system the reappearance, under a new 
guise, of a conception which has entered variously into edu- 
cational thought and practice within the past century and a 
half : the conception of a body of lower schools, or at least 
of middle schools, under a system of university administra- 
tion. The idea has kept cropping out, in different states and 
in different countries. If a good scheme of organization has 
been devised for a university ministering to the higher edu- 
cational needs of a given territory, why may not the same 
scheme be extended advantageously to all of the public 
schools within that territory ? The University of the State 
of New York is one attempt at an answer, and the accredit- 
ing system is another. 

But little need be said with reference to this question in 
such an account as we now have in hand. Attention should 
be called, however, to the practical difficulty which appears 
when administrative functions are devolved upon a teaching 
body, like that of a university. On the other hand, it is un- 
doubtedly a function of university faculties, as President 
Tappan pointed out, to consider and determine, to the best 
of human ability, the whole range of educational ideals and 
processes proper to schools of every grade. It is a note- 
worthy fact that under the accrediting scheme great systems 
of inspection, of both public and private secondary schools, 
have grown up here without the support of one syllable of 
statutory enactment. In some respects the voluntary char- 
acter of this arrangement has been its strength. It should 



378 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

be added that this voluntary system is, in some sections of 
the country, so reinforced already by tradition and public 
sentiment that the authorities of any given school find in it 
the force of compulsion. This is, perhaps, an unfortunate 
outcome of the very success which the plan has achieved. 

We find in Indiana what is virtually a system of univer- 
sity accrediting of high schools, the administration of which 
has been turned over to the state board of education. In 
July, 1873, the board of trustees of Indiana University 
adopted a resolution to the effect that a certificate " from 
certain high schools " should entitle the bearer to admission 
to the freshman class of that institution. In August of the 
same year the state board of education adopted plans under 
which the high schools which were worthy of such recogni- 
tion should be designated and commissioned. In 1888 the 
following order was passed : 

" That hereafter no high school commission he granted except on 
a favorable report in writing, to be made to the state board of edu- 
cation, by some member of the state board, who sball visit the high 
school in question as a committee of the state board for that purpose. 

" That all the high schools now in commission be visited by com- 
mittees of the board as soon as may be, and that the present hst 
be modified by the reports from such visitation. 

" That in case of change of superintendent in any commissioned 
high school, the commission then existing shall be in force until a 
visitation shall be made by a committee of the state board." 

The territory of the state was divided up among the mem- 
bers of the board for the purposes of such visitation. 

By such simple steps, and without specific legal enact- 
ment, an important state system of high schools has been 
built up. These schools rest upon a statutory provision 
authorizing local school authorities to provide for the teach- 
ing, not only of the elementary branches, in English, but also 
of " such other branches of learning and other languages as 
the advancement of the pupils may require." They are sup- 
ported in the same manner as the elementary schools. The 



RECENT TENDENCIES 379 

supervisory power of the state board of education is secured 
by the broad provision that " said board shall take cogni- 
zance of such questions as may arise in the practical adminis- 
tration of the school system not otherwise provided for, and 
duly consider, discuss, and determine the same." 

This board consists of the governor of the state, the state 
superintendent of public instruction, the respective presidents 
of the State University, Purdue University, and the State 
Normal School, the school superintendents of the three lar- 
gest cities in the state, all ex officio, and " three citizens of 
prominence actively engaged in educational work in the 
state, appointed by the governor." A four-year course of 
study for high schools, prepared by this board, is recom- 
mended for adoption by all schools which seek a place 
on the "commissioned high schools" list. The board an- 
nounces that commissions will be granted to those high 
schools only which meet the following requirements : 

1. The character of the work must be satisfactory; 

2. The high school course must be not less than thirty 
months in length, counting from the end of the eighth year ; 

3. The whole time of at least two teachers must be given 
to the high school work ; 

4. The course of study must be at least a fair equivalent 
of that recommended by the state board. 

It will be seen that this system provides for inspection of 
the schools only at long and irregular intervals. In practice, 
this defect is partially remedied by the close oversight which 
the universities exercise over those members of their fresh- 
man classes who enter on certificates from the schools. 

The interest in secondary education which has grown up 
under this system has extended to all sections of the state. 
The high schools of the more populous centres are generally 
on the " commissioned schools " list, and this list is steadily 
lengthening. There is growing up, also, a large number of 
" township high schools " in the more sparsely settled por- 
tions of the state, and the best of these find their place 
among the commissioned schools. 



380 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Parallel with the later development of the accrediting 
system, there have grown up important voluntary associa- 
tions of instructors, in which representatives of the colleges 
meet with representatives of the secondary schools for the 
discussion of topics of common interest. The parent society 
of this order is the New England Association of Colleges and 
Preparatory Schools, organized at Boston in 1885. The 
object of this association was declared to be, "The establish- 
ment of mutually sympathetic and helpful relations between 
the faculties of the colleges represented and the teachers of 
the preparatory schools, and the suggestion to that end 
of practical measures and methods of work wliich shall 
strengthen both classes of institutions by bringing them into 
effective harmony." 

\ This organization grew out of a previously existing state 
association of secondary school teachers in Massachusetts. 
It in turn prompted the establishment of the Commission of 
Colleges in New England on Admission Examinations. This 
commission, formed by agreement among the several New 
England colleges, and possessing no authority, has by its 
recommendations done much to unify the requirements for 
college matriculation. Its most notable achievement has 
been the mapping out of requirements in the English lan- 
guage and literature. It has made important recommenda- 
tions also with reference to courses in the ancient classics 
and modern languages. 

The example of New England has been followed by other 
sections of the country. The Association of Colleges and 
Preparatory Schools in the Middle States and Maryland 
came into existence in 1892, growing out of the College^As- 
sociation of Pennsylvania, established five years earlier. 
The North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary 
Schools was formed at Evanston, Illinois, in 1895 ; and the 
Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the South- 
ern States, at Atlanta, Georgia, later in the same year. State 
organizations somewhat similar in character are found in a 
number of the states, as in New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Colo- 



RECENT TENDENCIES 381 

rado, Michigan, both Dakotas, and California. These various 
societies, through their discussions and recommendations, 
have exercised a vast influence upon the development of our 
secondary education. 

One of the chief landmarks in the recent history of this 
grade of school is the report of the Committee on Secondary 
School Studies, appointed by the National Educational Asso- 
ciation in 1892, and commonly known as the " Committee of 
Ten." This committee was the outcome of a movement 
within the National Association, looking to uniformity of 
college entrance requirements, and was appointed at the 
suggestion of President James H. Baker of the University 
of Colorado. Its chairman was President Eliot of Harvard 
University. In its membership were included the United 
States Commissioner of Education and some of the foremost 
representatives of both secondary and higher education in 
America. Not limiting itself to the mechanical adjustment 
of relations between the high school and the college, the 
committee proceeded to consider the problem of secondary 
education from an educational point of view. Nine sub- 
committees of ten members each, were appointed to prepare 
reports on the several ordinary departments of secondary 
school instruction, namely, Latin, Greek, English, other 
modern languages, mathematics, physics (with astronomy 
and chemistry), natural history (biology, including botany, 
zoology, and physiology), history (with civil government 
and political economy), and geography (physical geography, 
geology, and meteorology). 

The Committee of Ten, having secured carefully prepared 
reports from its sub-committees, and having examined a 
large number of the courses in actual use in secondary 
schools, drew up a report which was published by the 
Bureau of Education in December, 1893. The reports of 
the sub-committees were incorporated in the document as 
issued. 

In all of these discussions the distribution of the years of 
school life now generally followed in the educational admin- 



382 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

istration of the American states is assumed as a datum ; 
eight years being assigned to the elementary school, and the 
four years next following to the high school. The demand 
for an earlier introduction of secondary school studies is, 
however, reiterated by several of the sub-committees which 
reported to the Committee of Ten. They call attention to 
the disadvantage to students pursuing, for instance, the 
study of Latin, which results from postponing the begin- 
nings of that study to the ninth year of the school course, 
when the student has already passed the most favorable 
time for memorizing paradigms and a strange vocabulary. 
The Committee of Ten, while approving strongly of these 
recommendations, confine their proposals to improvements 
in the ordinary four-year secondary course. 

After discussing the principles which should guide in the 
framing of courses of study, the committee present four 
sample courses, which may be taken as illustrations of the 
application of those principles. These sample courses are, 
however, generally regarded as the least successful and sig- 
nificant outcome of the committee's labors. The portions of 
the report which represent the most mature deliberation are 
those which propose general principles for guidance in the 
forming of such courses. 

The committee lay great stress on the correlation of 
studies in secondary schools : the unifying of many subjects 
into a well-knit curriculum, through the recognition of their 
numerous inter-relations. They endorse the unanimous 
recommendation of the sub-committees that the instruction 
in any given subject shall not be different for a student pre- 
paring to enter a higher institution from that for students 
who go no further than the high school. They make an 
urgent plea for more highly trained teachers. They declare 
against a multiplicity of " short information courses," such 
as have been given in many high schools in times past : a 
dip into one science followed by a dip into another, and no 
deep draught from any. Instead, tliey recommend that 
such subjects as are studied be pursued consecutively 



RECENT TENDENCIES 383 

enough and extensively enough to yield that training which 
each is best fitted to yield. They would have continuous 
instruction throughout the secondary course in the four 
main lines of languaf^e, mathematics, history, and natural 
science. In particular, they recommend that in the first 
two years of a four-year course, each student should enter 
all of the principal fields of knowledge, in order that he may 
fairly "exhibit his quality and discover his tastes." For 
this reason they recommend the postponement of the begin- 
ning of Greek to the third year, in order that the student 
may not find himself at the bifurcation of the course into 
classical and Latin-scientific courses before he is ready or 
his advisers sufficiently informed as to his capabilities to 
make an intelligent choice. The committee would require 
in each course a maximum of twenty recitation periods a 
week ; but they would have five of these periods devoted to 
unprepared work ; and would reserve double periods for 
laboratory exercises whenever possible. 

Within the limitations indicated above, as to continuity 
and extensiveness of studies in each of the broad divisions 
of knowledge, the committee would leave to the individual 
student and his advisers the largest possible freedom in the 
choice of studies. With reference to requirements for ad- 
mission to college, the committee' recommend " that the 
colleges and scientific schools of the country should accept 
for admission to appropriate courses of their instruction the 
attainments of any youth who has passed creditably through 
a good secondary school course, no matter to what group of 
subjects he may have mainly devoted himself in the secon- 
dary school." Describing more exactly what might be con- 
sidered "a good secondary school course" for this purpose, they 
propose that it shall consist of any group of studies from 
those considered by the sub-committees, " provided that the 
sum of the studies in each of the four years amounts to six- 
teen, or eighteen, or twenty periods a week, — as may be 
thought best, — and provided, further, that in each year at 
least four of the principal subjects presented shall have been 



384 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

pursued at least three periods a week, and that at least three 
of the subjects shall have been pursued three years or 
more." 

This report called forth a very spirited discussion. The 
definite courses of study which the committee suggested 
have not been generally adopted; nor have college admis- 
sion requirements been made uniform in the manner which 
it proposed. But its influence has been widespread and 
pervasive.^ 

Since the early days of the academies, it has been cus- 
tomary in many schools to offer alternative courses, one 
of them classical, the other " modern." Other options have 
been added from time to time, so that now a large school 
commonly offers several parallel courses. But especially 
within the last twenty years, there has appeared a strong 
demand that instead of a choice of curriculums the students 
be offered a wide range of choice in particular subjects. 

Several influences have combined to bring about this 
demand. The general adoption of an elective system in the 
colleges may be mentioned. School men have objected to 
close prescription in high schools when freedom is increasing 
in the higher institutions. The conviction that the secon- 
dary schools should not be merely tributary to the colleges 
is gaining ground. The independence of the secondary 
school carries with it independent responsibility for the 
supply of the actual educational needs of the youth attend- 
ing such a school. What is good education in the high 
school, it is maintained, is good preparation for the higher 
schools. And the students in the high schools are thought 
to have reached the stage of differentiation of educatianal 
needs. The need of the state, moreover, which education 
must satisfy, is the need of full, spiritual unity underlying 
the utmost diversity of talent and culture. The elementary 
schools, with their single course of study, are conservators 
of spiritual unity. The secondary schools can and should 
serve a different purpose. Their instruction should be 

1 See BibliograpMcal notes at the end of this chapter. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 385 

adapted to the cultivation of the diverse talents of the youth 
enrolled in them. No two students have exactly the same 
aptitudes ; so far as possible every student should pursue a 
different course of instruction from every other student. 
So the arguments run. 

It will be seen that one tendency of this doctrine is to 
substitute a quantitative for a qualitative consideration of 
the curriculum. The most diverse subjects are held to be 
equivalent for the purposes of general culture, if pursued for 
equal periods of time under equally favorable conditions. 
A high school course, under this system, would consist of a 
fixed number of units of study, to be chosen at will from 
the whole number of studies taught in the school. Certain 
utterances of the Committee of Ten have tended to strengthen 
this quantitative view of the curriculum. It received early 
reinforcement, also, from some prominent institutions of 
higher instruction, as the Indiana and Leland Stanford 
Junior Universities. For a number of years, these institu- 
tions have stated their admission requirements for the most 
part in quantitative terms.^ 

A later attempt at an adjustment of the relations of 
secondary schools and colleges, to the educational advantage 
of both, has given us the report of the Committee on College 
Entrance Eequirements. In 1895, at the suggestion of 
Professor William Carey Jones, the National Educational 
Association, through its departments of Secondary Education 

^ The doctrine of "formal discipliue," which was widely influential in 
German education in the earlier half of the nineteenth century, has for the 
most part been in disfavor in American educational theory within the past 
few years. Does not the movement toward free election of studies in general 
culture courses imply the revival of that doctrine in a new form ? The amount 
of study and the excellence of the instruction are taken as elements of the first 
importance, while the content of the studies pursued is treated as relatively 
unimportant. Compai'e, on dilferent aspects of this question, Russell, 
German higher schools, ch. 13 ; Hinsdale, The dogma of formal discipline, in 
Proc. N. E. A. session of 1894, pp. 625-635, and Ed. Rev., VIII., pp. 128-142, 
September, 1894 ; Eliot, A -wider range of electives in college admission require- 
ments, in his Educational reform, pp. 375-391, and Ed. Rev., XL, pp. 417-432, 
May, 1896. 

25 



'y 



386 TEE MAKING OF OVR ^m^.jDLE SCHOOLS 

and Higher Education, appomleu a committee to consider 
the specific question of the unification of college entrance 
requirements. This committee, as finally constituted, con- 
sisted of fourteen members, representing the high schools 
and universities of different sections of the country, under 
the chairmanship of Dr. A. F. Nightingale, then superin- 
tendent of high schools of the city of Chicago. The first 
important service rendered by the committee was the prep- 
aration and publication of a table showing the actual 
entrance requirements of sixty-seven representative colleges, 
universities, and higher technical schools in the United 
States.^ 

The committee's final report was presented at the meeting 
of the National Association in July, 1899. This report is 
mainly devoted to the attempt to establish " national units, 
or norms " in the several subjects taught in the secondary 
schools as preparatory to college matriculation. The funda- 
mental problem " is to formulate courses of study in each 
of the several subjects of the curriculum which shall be 
substantially equal hi value, the measure of value being 
both quantity and quality of work done. ... It is not to 
be expected, nor is it to be desired, that all colleges should 
make the same entrance requirements, nor is it to be 
expected that all schools will have the same program of 
studies. What is to be desired, and what the committee 
hopes may become true, is that the colleges will state their 
entrance requirements in terms of national units, or norms, 
and that the schools will build up their program of studies 
out of units furnished by these separate courses of study." 
This hope is reinforced by experience with college entrance 
requirements in English, which have within the past few 
years become nearly uniform throughout the country, on 
the basis of the recommendations of the Commission of 
Colleges in New England on Admission Examinations. 

1 See Preliminarij report of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements, 
in The School Review, IV., pp. 341-412 ; and Report of the chairman, Id., pp. 
415-423. Subsidiary reports are presented, Id., pp. 424-460, June, 1896. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 387 

111 the determination of these norms, the committee 
received assistance from several bodies of expert scholars in 
the several branches of instruction. The American Philo- 
logical Association proposed courses of study in Latin and 
Greek. The Modern Language Association of America 
rendered a like service with reference to the French and 
German languages. The American Historical Association 
and the Chicago Section of the American Mathematical 
Society reported on courses in history and mathematics. 
And the Department of Natural-Science Instruction of the 
National Educational Association presented recommenda- 
tions relating to physical geography, chemistry, botany, 
zoology, and physics. These several supplemental papers 
are published in connection with the committee's report. 
The committee express general approval of the courses 
recommended in these papers, suggest some slight modifica- 
ticns, and offer an independent report on the subject of 
English. Their further recommendations are summed up 
in fourteen resolutions, of which the following, while not 
very clearly expressed, seem to be of the greatest general 
significance : 

" I. That the principle of election be recognized in secondary 
schools." 

" IV. That we favor a unified six-year high-school course of 
study beginning with the seventh grade." 

" VI. That, while the committee recognizes as suitable for 
recommendation by the colleges for admission the several studies 
enumerated in this report, and while it also recognizes the principle 
of large liberty to the students in secondary schools, it does not 
believe in unlimited election, but especially emphasizes the import- 
ance of a certain number of constants in all secondary schools aud 
in all requirements for admission to college. 

" That the committee recommends that the number of constants 
be recognized in the following proportion, namely : four units in 
foreign languages (no language accepted in less than two units), 
two units in mathematics, two in English, one in history, and one 
in science." 



388 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

" XIT. That we recommend that any piece of work comjDrehended 
within the studies included in this report that has covered at least 
one year of four periods a week in a well-equipped secondary 
school, under competent instruction, should be considered worthy 
to count toward admission to college." 

The committee disclaim any implication that different 
subjects may be regarded as educationally equivalent. " This 
proposition [resolution XII.]," they say, "does not involve 
of itself, necessarily, the idea that all subjects are of equal 
cultural or disciplinary value, . . . yet the advantages to 
our educational system of the adoption of this principle will 
be so great as far to outweigh any incidental disadvantage 
which may accrue from accepting as of equal value for 
college purposes the more or less unequal values represented 
by these studies." 

The first important general movement looking to an 
improvement of the relations between colleges and sec- 
ondary schools through a reform in the conduct of entrance 
examinations, was inaugurated by the Association of Colleges 
and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland. 
At the meeting of this body in December, 1899, Professor 
(now President) Nicholas Murray Butler read a paper in 
which he advocated a certain degree of uniformity in college 
entrance requirements^- and the setting up of a common 
board of examiners. " It has long been my belief," said Dr. 
Butler, " that most of the difficulties which have attended 
and still attend the relations between secondary schools and 
colleges grow out of what may properly be called our educa- 
tional atomism. Each institution plays for its own hand, 
and consults first what it rightly or wrongly feels to be its 
own peculiar interests. ... It is my present purpose to 
. . . contrast with the prevailing atomistic view, what may 
be described as an organic or institutional view, . . . and to 
draw the conclusion that, when co-operation with other col- 
leges is demonstrably in the public interest, such co-opera- 
tion is a duty." 



RECENT TENDENCIES 389 

' The plan of co-operation that he proposed was embodied 
in a set of resolutions, which were unanimously adopted 
by the association. This was the first of a series of steps 
which led to the organization, November 17, 1900, of the 
College Entrance Examination Board of the Middle States 
and Maryland.^ This board appointed three examiners in 
each of the nine principal subjects entering into college 
admission requirements, two of the examiners in each group 
being college instructors and the third a secondary school 
principal or teacher. These examiners prepared the ques- 
tions to be set in their several subjects, and issued detailed 
instructions for the guidance of the readers of the answer- 
books of those taking the examination. 

The first examination under this arrangement was held 
the week beginning June 17, 1901. The questions had 
been sent out to various centres, at which those taking the 
examination might assemble. The examination accordingly 
took place simultaneously at sixty-seven points in the 
United States, and two in Europe, and was taken by a total 
of 973 candidates. Over forty colleges and universities, 
many of them outside of the territory directly represented 
by the examination board, declared their willingness to 
accept the board's examinations as satisfactory substitutes 
for their own, in the topics covered, and three institutions 
in the city of New York took the further step of dispensing 
with their own separate examinations.^ 

Such an arrangement as this had been previously pro- 
posed by President Eliot, of Harvard University. It seems 
altogether probable that the movement thus begun in the 
middle states will extend to other portions of the country, 
and will in time do away with the separate entrance exami- 
nations of our several colleges. It involves many possible 
dangers, but as an improvement upon the system which 
exposed the secondary schools to all of the infelicities 
connected with separate examinations at all of the higher 

^ Proceedings of the 13th annual convention of the Association . . , of the 
Middle States and Maryland. Also, First annual report of the secretary, etc. 



390 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

institutions, with their many divergences and occasional 
whimsicalities, it is an undertaking of very great significance. 

The North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary 
Schools has taken action looking to the unifying of the 
several agencies for the inspection and accrediting of schools 
which are now at work in the field covered by that organi- 
zation. At the suggestion of Professor S. A. Forbes, dean 
of the college of science of the University of Illinois, a 
Commission on Accredited Schools was appointed in 1901, 
whose duties are enumerated as follows : 

"1. To define and describe unit courses of study in the various 
subjects of the high school programme, taking for tlie point of 
departure the recommendations of the National Committee of 
Thirteen ; -^ 

" 2. To serve as a standing committee on uniformity of ad- 
mission requirements for the colleges and universities of the 
Association ; 

" 3. To take steps to secure uniformity in the standards and 
methods, and economy of labor and expense, in the work of high 
school inspection ; 

" 4. To prepare a list of high schools within the territory of the 
Association which are entitled to the accredited relationship ; 

"5. To formulate and report methods and standards for the 
assignment of college credit for good high school work done in 
advance of the college entrance requirement." 

This commission was constituted of representatives, in 
equal proportions, of the colleges and the secondary schools, 
about forty members in all, with Professor Harry Pratt 
Judson, dean of the faculties of arts, literature, and science 
in the University of Chicago, as its chairman. Its first 
report was presented at the meeting of the association at 
Cleveland, Ohio, in March, 1902. 

In the definition and description of unit courses of study, 
this report follows, in the main, the Committee on College- 
Entrance Eequirements and the College Entrance Examina- 

1 I suppose the Committee on College-Entrance Requirements is intended. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 391 

tion Board. It recommends that college credit be allowed 
for certain kinds of advanced work done in secondary schools, 
and proposes regulations to be observed in the granting of 
such credit. It recommends further that the schools be. 
adequately equipped with libraries and laboratories, and be 
taught by college-bred teachers, specially trained in the 
subjects which they teach, and not required to give instruc- 
tion for more than five recitation periods a day. 

Especial interest attaches to its recommendations touching 
the inspection of high schools. Here it is proposed : 

" 4. That a Board of Inspectors should be appointed by the 
Commission to ascertain the schools within the territory of the 
North Central Association which are entitled to accredited 
relationship. . . . 

" 5. That tlie Commission cause to be printed and distributed 
to the several inspectors, for the use of high schools and academies, 
certain uniform blanks, with the intent to secure uniformity and 
to avoid duplication of work." 

It is further provided that the Board of Inspectors shall 
present their list of recommended schools to the Commission 
by June first of each year, and that the Commission shall 
publish the list by June tenth of each year. 

This report was adopted by the association, and a Board 
of Inspectors was constituted, consisting of Inspectors Whit- 
ney of Michigan, Brown of Iowa, Alton of Minnesota, Brooks 
of Illinois, and Hoge of Missouri.^ 

It is an important undertaking which this commission 
has in hand. In the words of one of the officers of the 
North Central Association, "It represents the attitude of 
the West as distinctly as the Examination Board of the 
Middle States represents the attitude of the East." Every- 
thing will depend upon the effectiveness of its system of 
school visitation. From the standpoint of college and uni- 

1 MS. summary of the report and of the action taken in accordance with 
its provisions, by Director G. N. Carman, of Lewis Institute, Chicago, secre- 
tary of the commission. 



392 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

versity scholarship, a system of entrance examinations will 
probably have the advantage over the accrediting system 
wherever there is any lack of thoroughness in the inspection 
of schools. 

It is fortunate that the accrediting plan and the examina- 
tion plan are to have a fair trial, side by side, on a large 
scale, and each under a comprehensive scheme. It is for- 
tunate, too, that both schemes as now under way make 
provision for co-operation between the secondary and the 
higher schools. It is hardly to be expected or desired that 
either organization should simply triumph over the other 
in the competition of purposes and methods. It is more 
likely that each will learn from the other, and from its 
own experience ; and that the outcome will be something 
better than the Dromoters of either enterprise have as 
yet proposed. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
RECENT TENDENCIES — Continued 

The endeavor to adjust our secondary schools to the chang- 
ing needs of American life, has had its influence upon 
curriculums, but has appeared most conspicuously in the 
differentiation of schools. 

The old grammar schools represented the classical trend 
and tone in education ; the academies showed the influence 
of the new romantic ideals ; the high schools had a touch of 
realism from the start, which hardly came to its full develop- 
ment, however, until the present generation. The schools 
had worked down and down to larger and larger social 
grades and divisions, till they had come to be, in a sense, a 
concern of the whole people. The educational movement 
became so comprehensive in its range, that it em- 
braced a multitude of diverse aims and aspirations. The 
old academies had shown great flexibility in their systems 
of organization and instruction ; but numerous variants from 
the dominant type arose in their day, as we have seen. 
Some of these variants were solitary institutions ; some 
belonged to movements which soon brought forth many 
schools, alike in some characteristic feature ; while one 
movement, that which gave us the public high schools, 
outgrew and overshadowed all that the academies had 
done, and gave a different and probably more lasting charac- 
ter to our general provision for secondary education. 

The high schools, too, have shown great adaptability to 
varying needs and conditions. But they have failed to meet 
all demands for secondary education, and we have seen 
private schools of many sorts — some under ecclesiastical 



394 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

control, some managed by private corporations, some owned 
and conducted by individuals in their purely private capac- 
ity — growing up and flourishing alongside of the public 
schools. These schools, both public and private, have been 
busily engaged in the attempt to satisfy the great diversity 
of public taste and need in this domain, and their varied 
activities have served to render our secondary education 
increasingly interesting and significant. 

One of the notable tendencies of the past forty years is 
seen in the growth of large boarding schools under Episco- 
palian management. This movement is commonly traced 
back to a beginning in the Flushing Institute and St. Paul's 
College, on Long Island. The Flushing Institute was under 
the control of a private corporation, apparently organized as 
a joint stock company. But its whole educational manage- 
ment was in the hands of the Eev. William Augustus Muh- 
lenberg, a man of marked and winning personality, who rose 
to distinction in several spheres of activity.^ Beginning 
as a boarding school for boys in 1828, it grew into a college 
ten years later. In the eighteen years that Dr. Muhlenberg 
was at the head of the institutio'ii, about nine hundred stu- 
dents came under his instruction. Among these were John 
Jay, Eichard Grant White, three prospective bishops of the 
Protestant Episcopal church, and others who became emi- 
nent in various fields of usefulness. The college was owned 
and controlled by Dr. Muhlenberg alone. It was continued 
for three or four years after he left it to enter a pastorate in 
New York, and then was closed and the property sold. 

Dr. Muhlenberg regarded his school as his family. He 
was to each of the boys in loco 'parentis, and the paternal 
type of boarding school management which he represented 
has entered largely into the conduct of other institutions. 
" Schools modelled, so far as might be, after St. Paul's," says 
his biographer, " had sprung up in all directions. Every 
diocese became ambitious to have one, and bishops and 

^ He is perhaps most widely known as the author of " I would uot live 
alway," and other Christian hymns. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 395 

doctors of the church had resorted to College Point, and 
sat at his feet, as learners of his methods." St. James Col- 
lege, at Hagerstown, Maryland, was one of the most note- 
worthy of these new schools.^ 

A little later this movement, to which Dr. Muhlenberg 
had given so great an impetus, resulted in the founding of a 
school which has lived and prospered to the present time. 
That is the St. Paul's School, at Concord, New Hampshire, 
in some sense the patriarch among the schools of this class. 
Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck, a former pupil of the Eound 
Hill School at Northampton, was the founder of this school. 
It was declared in the deed of gift, by which he conveyed a 
valuable piece of real estate to the trustees whom he had 
chosen, that, " We are desirous of endowing a school of the 
highest class, for boys, in which they may obtain an educa- 
tion which shall fit them either for college or business ; in- 
cluding thorough intellectual training in the various branches 
of learning ; gymnastic and manly exercises adapted to pre- 
serve health and strengthen the physical condition ; such 
aesthetic culture and accomplishments as shall tend to 
refine the manners and elevate the taste, together with 
careful moral and religious instruction.'' 

The iirst rector of this school, who stamped his character 
and ideals upon its whole organization, was the Eev. Henry 
Augustus Coit, a former student under Dr. Muhlenberg at 
College Point, and sometime instructor in the College of 
St. James, at Hagerstown. He presided over the institution 
from its opening, in 1856, down to the time of his death, in 
1895. Under his management it went steadily forward, in 
attendance, equipment, and teaching force. In 1860 it had 
six masters and 43 boys ; in 1870, nine masters and 100 
boys ; in 1880, seventeen masters and 227 boys ; in 1890, 
twenty-seven masters and 295 boys. The latest catalogue 
shows thirty-seven masters and 352 boys. 

There is much in this school, as in those which have 
followed its lead, which reminds one of the English public 

^ Ayres, Life of William Augustus MuJilenherg, cli. 7-12. 



396 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

schools. Not only its distinctive religious character, but its 
school nomenclature, in which forms and removes and other 
old-time expressions appear, and its pursuit of the English 
game of cricket, introduced by the founder himself in the 
earlier days, all call up associations with Rugby and Harrow 
and other great schools of the mother land. It is not to be 
supposed, however, that these resemblances indicate a pur- 
pose to make of St. Paul's and the other schools of its class 
mere imitations of their English prototypes. It is more 
likely that these American schools, having received inspira- 
tion and suggestion from across the water, are working them 
out in such forms as American conditions seem to call for, 
and that the occasional reproduction of distinctively English 
usages is a mere incident of the process. In its earlier his- 
tory, the school year at St. Paul's lasted from December to 
October, with a brief recess in May. The charges for tuition 
and residence were three hundred dollars a year. Since 
1864 these charges have slowly risen to seven hundred 
dollars.^ 

St. Mark's School, at Southborough, Massachusetts, was 
founded by Joseph Burnett, in 1865. It is said that its 
establishment was suggested by the fact that the dormito- 
ries of St. Paul's School were already full, and new boys 
could gain admission to that school only after a long period 
of waiting. Beginning with twelve boys, St. Mark's soon 
had to build a new dormitory for forty -five, which v/as soon 
thereafter enlarged to provide for sixty. AVhen this pro- 
vision was again increased, in 1890, and one hundred boys 
were accommodated, that number was fixed as the final 
limit. In recent years this limit has been somewhat 
exceeded. The school is under a board of trustees, who 
appoint a head-master in whom the actual administration 
is vested. The bishop of the diocese (Protestant Episcopal) 
is visitor of the school.^ 

1 Lamberton, St. Paul's School; Statement of St. PaitVs School . . . 
1900-1901. 

2 St. Mark's School. The consecration of the chapel, etc. Catalogue of the 
school for 1901-1902. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 397 

The Shattuck School, at Faribault, Minnesota, named for 
the founder of St, Paul's School, took definite shape in 
1867.^ Groton School, at Groton, Massachusetts, took its 
place in this sequence of foundations in 1884 ;2 and others 
have followed in their line. 

This notable group of Episcopalian schools is representa- 
tive of a larger class of boarding schools, under various 
forms of control, which have been growing up in recent 
years. Another important institution of this class is the 
Lawrenceville School, established on the John C. Green 
foundation at Lawrenceville, New Jersey, in 1883, in which 
the household or cottage system of school management has 
been carried to a high development. 

The military ideal in education was quickened by the 
experiences of our Civil War. It has reappeared in the 
organization of school battalions in a number of high schools, 
from Boston to San Francisco ; in ecclesiastical schools, like 
that at Faribault; and in other institutions under various 
forms of private control. Many schools have been estab- 
lished in which the military organization is not simply one 
aspect of the life of the institution, but gives it instead its 
dominant character. The Michigan Military Academy, on 
the shore of Orchard Lake, may be mentioned as an example 
of this type of institution. Colonel Rogers established this 
school in 1877, proposing to make of it an institution in 
which boys should be put through a course of effective mili- 
tary training, and at the same time be fitted for admission 
to the leading colleges, both east and west. The school 
made its way quickly into public favor, and has had a highly 
interesting career.^ 

One recent foundation is so unique and of such great 
proportions that it can hardly be passed by in such an 
account as this. The Jacob Tome Institute, founded in 1889, 

^ Shattuck School, . . . its history, etc. 
2 Catalogue of the school for 1901-1902. 

8 See the descriptive and historical article in The Interior for July 23, 
1896. 



398 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

at Port Deposit, Maryland, received from its founder, by- 
gift and bequest, a sum amounting to more than $2,500,000. 
The character of this Institute can hardly be set forth, for 
it is not yet clearly determined ; but there is reason to hope 
that the management will make of it in time a very impor- 
tant addition to our provision for secondary education. At 
present, a free elementary school is maintained by the corpo- 
ration, together with a secondary school for both boys and 
girls. Instruction in this " Senior School " is also free to 
residents of Maryland. Others pay a tuition fee of one 
hundred dollars a year, with an additional charge of three 
hundred dollars for such as live in the boarding hall. The 
act of incorporation calls for instruction not only in the 
usual school studies, but also in manual training, and in 
domestic and other useful arts. Several courses of instruc- 
tion have accordingly been offered, some preparatory to 
college and others of a more general character, besides 
courses in manual training, in commerce, and in art. A 
school of commerce, of college grade, has been announced as 
projected but has not yet been organized.^ 

It would be too large an undertaking to give any account 
of the private day schools which have grown up in American 
cities within recent years ; yet it is not to be forgotten that 
their number is great and their service highly important. 
Some are fitting schools for college, in which cramming is 
carried to the last degree of refinement. Some are fin- 
ishing schools for young ladies, which attain their object 
beyond all question. But it can hardly be doubted that 
the majority of these schools are under the influence of a 
genuine educational purpose, and many of them are doing 
work of the greatest value, as is shown by the higli character 
and sound culture of students whom they have sent out. 

The Eoman Catholic educational movement in this coun- 
try received a new impetus from the Third Plenary Coun- 
cil held at Baltimore in 1884. Parish priests were solemnly 
charged by this council with the establishment and main- 

1 The Jacoh Tome Institute , . . prospectus of the senior scJiool, lQOl-1902. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 399 

tenance of parochial schools, and Catholic parents directed 
to send their children to such schools, except in special cases. 
This action merely followed and emphasized that of the 
Second Plenary Council, held in 1866. But a new step 
of great significance was that resulting in the establish- 
ment, at Washington, D. C, of the Catholic University of 
America, which was opened for theological students in 
1889, and for students in philosophy, law, and technology 
in 1895. 

In their recent development. Catholic schools have in 
several particulars been frankly assimilated with the courses 
and methods of the public schools which they parallel. 
Under the lead of the rector of the Catholic University, an 
Association of Catholic Colleges of the United States has 
been formed, which has now held three annual conferences ; 
and at the latest of these conferences, Bishop Conaty, 
in his opening address as presiding officer, urged the im- 
portance of unifying the system of Catholic education, 
through a more complete organization of high schools, 
which should link the existing parochial schools with the 
Catholic colleges. 

This project has been widely discussed of late, in Catholic 
circles, and it is not unlikely that the next important 
advance in Catholic education will be seen in the more gen- 
eral establishment of schools of this kind. The Kev. J. A. 
Burns, C.S.C., in an address before the conference men- 
tioned above, called attention to the fact that, in the year 
1898-99, there were 646 boys and 1,342 girls in the 53 
Catholic high schools then in existence, attached to elemen- 
tary schools. He argued in favor of the building up of such 
schools, " as the connecting link between parochial school and 
college." He would make them " a system of schools 
parallel, as nearly as may be, to the system of public high 
schools." One of the most notable steps already taken, in 
the direction indicated by these recent utterances, was the 
establishment several years ago of the Cahill High School, an 
endowed, free. Catholic school, in the city of Philadelphia. 



400 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Similar schools have been established at Peoria, Providence, 
and elsewhere.^ 

The differentiation of schools thus far considered is that 
on the side of private establishments. While there has been 
a notable development of private secondary education, in 
several directions, within the past generation, it is a fact of 
great significance that this movement has not yet begun to 
compete in any marked degree with the public high school 
movement. Up to the eighties of the nineteenth century, 
less than half of the secondary school students in the United 
States were in public high schools. Within that decade the 
proportion was reversed. In the year 1887-88 the public 
schools are found passing their competitors for the first time. 
In 1889-90 the public high schools contained more than 
two-thirds of our secondary school students, and this pro- 
portion has increased every year since that time, so far as 
the statistics have yet been published. According to the 
latest report of the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion, that for the year 1899-1900, 82.41 per cent of the 
secondary school students in the United States were in pub- 
lic, and 17.59 in private schools. 

Other differentiations of our secondary education should 
be briefly noted, the most of which have affected both pub- 
lic schools and those under private management. And first 
of these, the provision for separate schooling of boys and 
girls.^ The report of the Commissioner of Education for 
1896-97 showed a total of 5,109 public high schools in the 
whole country, of which 35 were for boys only, 26 for 
girls only, and the remainder co-educational. The same 
report showed a total of 2,100 private high schools, academies, 
etc., of which 351 were for boys only, 537 for girls only, 
and 1,212 co-educational. 

There has been some differentiation of secondary schools 

1 See Bibliographical notes at the end of this chapter. 

2 Historically, of course, the boys' school constitutes the original stock, 
from which the mixed school and the school for girls have been split off at 
different times. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 401 

on the color line. In the northern and western states, 
white and colored students, where there are colored students 
of secondary grade, commonly attend the same schools. But 
in the southern states separate schools are provided for those 
of African race. The report of the Commissioner of Educa- 
tion for 1896-97 showed 169 schools in the United States 
for the secondary and higher education of colored youth 
exclusively. In many of these schools both grades of in- 
struction were provided in the same institution. About 
twenty of the number were public high schools. The 
remainder were private or denominational institutions. In 
these 169 schools, 15,203 colored students were receiving 
instruction of secondary grade. The report for 1899-1900 
showed that 5,075 colored students were pursuing secondary 
school studies in public high schools in the southern states, 
and 3,320 in such schools in other portions of the Union. 

Another special type of school, the evening high school, 
has been established in a nuinber of our larger cities. 
Schools of this sort have offered very elastic courses of 
study, suited to the varied needs of their clientage, and 
have been a great boon to many who have been obliged 
to work by day after the completion of an elementary 
school course. 

The European manual training exhibits at the Centennial 
Exhibition in Philadelphia, in 1876, gave a strong impetus 
to a movement, already under discussion and even tenta- 
tively begun, toward the establishment of manual training 
schools in American cities. St. Louis took a step forward, 
in 1879, in the establishment of such a school in connection 
with Washington University. In 1884 similar schools 
were established, some under private and some under pub- 
lic control, in Baltimore, Chicago, Toledo, New York, and 
Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The discussions of the year 1882 in 
the National Educational Association, together with im- 
portant articles in the great public journals, had given new 
force to the movement. In these early schools the idea of 
manual training for the purposes of general culture was 

26 



402 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

usually uppermost, their projectors disclaiming any inten- 
tion of establishing schools for the teaching of trades.^ 

More recently, trade schools have been established in the 
largest cities, but for the most part under private initiative 
and control. A notable school of this sort is the California 
School of Mechanical Arts, established at San Francisco by 
James Lick, the founder of the Lick Observatory. Mr, 
Lick, in 1875, conveyed to certain trustees a large amount of 
property, to be devoted to various public uses. He directed 
that the sum of $540,000 should be set aside to found and 
endow a school " to educate males and females in the prac- 
tical arts of life." After prolonged litigation the school 
contemplated in this gift came into being in 1895. It re- 
ceives pupils who have finished the work of the grammar 
school, and offers them a course of instruction and training 
four years in length. Some studies of a general character 
are included in this course ; but the distinguishing feature 
of the school is its provision for technical instruction 
preparatory to the pursuit of several of the common mechan- 
ical trades. Each pupil devotes the first two years in 
the school to laying a broad foundation in drawing, mathe- 
matics, natural science, and general manual training, and 
to the discovery of his own special tastes and aptitudes. 
At the end of this period he selects the trade which he will 
pursue, and the last two years are devoted to specific prepa- 
ration for the practice of this trade. The school is free 
to boys and girls from any part of California. 

The Wilmerding school, established in 1898 for similar pur- 
poses by a bequest of Mr. J. Clute Wilmerding, has been or- 
ganized in such close connection with the Lick school that 
the two may be conducted on a co-operative basis. The 
Eegents of the University of California were made trustees 
of the fund of 1400,000 bequeathed by Mr. Wilmerding to 
found this school. 

In a recent address before the Twentieth Century Club of 
Boston, President Pritchett of the Massachusetts Institute 
^ Woodward, Rise and progress of manual training. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 403 

of Technology gave au interesting survey of the provision 
for technical instruction and training for particular trades 
now available in the city of Boston. Such provision is 
found to be meagre and inadequate, although some good 
beginnings have been made. President Pritchett called 
especial attention to the good work done on certain 
technical lines in the evening classes of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, the Young Men's Christian Union, 
and other benevolent and private organizations.^ 

In the most of the cities of the country, both large and 
small, the evening classes of the Young Men's Christian 
Associations are rendering a very important service, offering 
as they do both technical and " continuation " courses in a 
great variety of subjects. Such classes have been main- 
tained for many years ; but they have been greatly extended 
and improved within the past decade. One chief influence 
furthering this new development emanated from the Pratt 
Institute in Brooklyn. The International Committee of 
these Associations have employed a secretary to foster and 
systematize this side of their varied activity. Their state 
organizations stimulate and unify the work of the local 
Associations ; and the local Associations themselves, work- 
ing in full independence, employ skilled directors for their 
educational agencies, offer courses in such subjects as are 
most in demand, under the best instructors they can secure, 
conduct regular examinations, and issue certificates of profi- 
ciency to students who have satisfied strict scholastic require- 
ments.^ Other religious and benevolent societies do work of 
a somewhat similar sort, though generally less extensive and 
systematic than that of the organization referred to. 

1 Ed. Rev. for March, 1902. 

2 The supervision of this work was undertaken by the International Com- 
mittee in 1893. A system of international examinations was introduced in 
1896. In 1901, there were 380 of the Young Men's Christian Associations in 
North America which maintained educational classes, with an enrolment of 
26,906 different students. Eighteen educational directors were employed. 
Annual report of the Secretary (Mr. George B. Hodge) for 1901 ; Prospectus 
for 1901-02. 



404 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The Pratt Institute is itself a typical instance of a class 
of large urban foundations which are of untold value as 
supplemental agencies of education. The Cooper Institute 
of New York is the patriarch of such establishments, and 
the Drexel Institute of Philadelphia is another notable 
example. It is an immensely varied work which is done 
by these institutes, and each has followed its own separate 
course of development. But their activities are chiefly 
educational, and fall largely in what may be regarded as 
the field of secondary education ; more particularly, too, in 
secondary education of a technical sort. 

Commercial subjects have a large place in the courses 
offered by these various institutes and associations, and this 
side of vocational instruction calls for some special notice. 
For several generations, book-keeping and other subjects of 
this class have found a place, rather uncertain and variable, 
to be sure, in the courses of study of secondary schools. In 
the high schools and in many private schools, regular com- 
mercial courses have been organized. For the most part, 
however, such courses have been less exacting than the 
main courses of the schools in which they have been offered, 
and too often they have been the last resort of lazy or in- 
competent students. Not infrequently, too, they have been 
short courses, only one year or two years in length. There 
have been honorable exceptions, but on the whole these 
commercial courses have proved unsatisfactory. 

There has been, however, a real and insistent demand for 
distinctively commercial education, and this has been met 
in part by private schools, " business colleges," of varying 
degrees of excellence, which have appeared in most of the 
larger cities of the country. Among the institutions of 
higher education, the University of Pennsylvania, with its 
Wharton School, stood alone in its provision for the ad- 
vanced study of commercial operations, until the closing 
years of the nineteenth century, when a movement appeared 
almost simultaneously in a number of our colleges and uni- 
versities, looking to the making of provision, on a high 



RECENT TENDENCIES 405 

plane of ef&ciency, for studies of this kind. A new interest 
has arisen, too, in commercial education of the secondary 
grade. The setting up of a Business High School in Wash- 
ington, District of Columbia, is one indication of such inter- 
est. Of much greater significance is the establishment of a 
High School of Commerce by the Board of Education of the 
City of New York. This school will be opened in the fall of 
1902, under the principalship of Mr. J. J. Shepard, and pro- 
vided with a corps of thirty instructors. A new building is 
in process of erection for its use. The school will offer a 
course seven years in length, resting upon the ordinary 
elementary instruction offered in the primary and grammar 
schools. 

These few pages have given but the merest hint of the 
varied development of our secondary schools in recent years, 
but to go at all fully into the subject would add unduly to 
the bulk of this volume. In bringing our survey of this 
class of recent tendencies to a close, it will be well to make 
note of the new movements affecting secondary education in 
our great and growing cities. 

The increasing demand for high school instruction in our 
cities within recent years, has taxed to the utmost the inge- 
nuity and the resources of those officially charged with the 
management of public schools. New problems not a few 
have presented themselves. At what point does the central- 
ization of high school instruction in a single school cease to 
be economical or of educational advantage ? When more 
than one high school is provided, may the division best be 
made on territorial lines, or according to the sex or the 
special pursuits of the students to be accommodated ? What 
system of supervision will best regulate the common inter- 
ests of all such schools and their relations one to another ? 
What principles shall guide in the distribution of funds 
among the several schools ? Questions such as these, for 
the most part new in this generation, have come up for 
answer. And each community has answered them, provi- 
sionally at least, in its own way, under the influence of 



406 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

numberless local conditions. The different solutions reached 
in Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver, Cincinnati, 
Boston, Baltimore, and a score of other cities, are full of 
interest, and might well fill a volume on The new systems of 
high school adrninistration. Such a volume should deal 
also with the varying duties of high school principals, the 
departmental organization of instruction, the thousand-and- 
one questions relating to high school buildings and the 
equipment and management of workshops and laboratories. 

This work cannot attempt even a superficial account of 
these things. Some little attention should be given, how- 
ever, to the new high school system of the metropolis, which 
in its rapid development is probably without a parallel in 
the history of education. 

From 1870, wlien the Normal College was established, 
down to 1897, when the new high schools were opened, the 
public provision for secondary education in what is now the 
Borough of Manhattan and the Bronx was substantially as 
follows : The Free Academy, now become the City College, 
could care for a limited number of boys, giving them a 
course leading to an academic degree. The Normal College 
offered secondary instruction, with a professional bent, to girls 
who wished to become teachers. And there was an evening 
high school, which provided a continuation course for such 
as had completed their elementary studies, and were now 
occupied during the day with the duties of active life. 

The City College and the Normal College took the best 
of those who offered themselves for admission, but they had 
accommodations for only a small fraction of those who had 
finished the elementary school course and wished to go on 
with higher studies. It does not appear clearly why these 
facilities had not been enlarged to meet the growing need. 
There was probably an unwillingness on the part of succes- 
sive school boards to devote public funds to secondary edu- 
cation when so many children were continuously unprovided 
with opportunities for even primary instruction. But the 
countless other influences which must have been at work, 



RECENT TENDENCIES 407 

no one outside of the City of New York may ever hope to 
untangle. 

There had grown up in the meantime within the city a 
noteworthy group of secondary schools under private con- 
trol, some of which had a national reputation. The school 
of the Dutch Eeformed Church, established in 1633 for ele- 
mentary instruction, was still alive, and had grown into 
the Collegiate School, for the secondary education of boys. 
Trinity School, another colonial establishment for elemen- 
tary instruction, had also become an important secondary 
school. The old Columbia Grammar School, which shares 
in the classical reputation of Professor Anthon, continued 
its work, though no longer connected with Columbia College. 
There were such schools for girls as Mrs. Eeed's, Miss 
Spence's, the Misses Ely's, the Brearley schools, and many 
others well known in the city and far beyond its limits as 
well ; and boys' schools, without a colonial history, were 
making a strong modern record — the Cutler School, the 
school of John Browning, and several others ; while the 
two schools of Dr. Sachs were making separate provision, 
for both boys and girls. 

There remained, however, the growing demand for free 
public high schools, and under Mayor Strong's administra- 
tion the preliminary steps were taken by the Board of Edu- 
cation to satisfy this need. The new high schools which 
were finally secured, as an outcome of this movement, were 
three in number : the De Witt Clinton School, for boys ; the 
Wadleigh School, for girls ; and the Peter Cooper School, now 
called the Morris School, for both girls and boys. They were 
opened in the fall of 1897. Dr. John T. Buchanan was 
called from the Kansas City High School to become prin- 
cipal of the school for boys; Dr. John G-. Wight, from 
the Girls' High School of Philadelphia, to become principal 
of the school for girls ; while the mixed school was put in 
charge of Dr. Edward J. Goodwin, who was called from the 
principalship of the high school at Newton, Massachusetts. 
Dr. Buchanan, beginning with about five hundred boys, in 



408 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

a condemned and disused grammar school building, saw his 
school grow to twelve hundred in a single year, and to 
twenty-four hundred in two years. Each year the enor- 
mous growth called for the opening of an " annex " to the 
school in another part of the city, till now the De'Witt 
Clinton School is in reality a system of four schools, all 
remote from one another, with a teaching force of nearly 
one hundred instructors. Each annex is in charge of a 
"first assistant," while Dr. Buchanan continues to be prin- 
cipal over the whole, four-parted institution. 

The Wadleigh School has gone through a similar and nearly 
parallel development, the number of teachers having grown 
to a little over one hundred. Provision has been made for 
four annexes, in widely separated sections of the city. The 
Morris School has been extended to two annexes and has a 
force of seventy teachers. 

The regular high school enrolment of this chief borough 
of N'ew York City has grown, then, in five years from noth- 
ing to not far from ten thousand ; and there is no sign as 
yet that the annual increase has reached its term. An at- 
tendance of several hundred is expected at the new High 
School of Commerce, when it shall open in the fall of 1902. 
A manual training high school is expected to appear, although 
the steps toward its establishment have halted for a time. 
And the stronger private schools of the city are prosperous 
as ever, and go on their way undisturbed by this great ex- 
pansion in the public schools.^ 

The third group of recent tendencies to be discussed in 
these chapters is that looking toward a better adjustment 
of our secondary education to the needs of individual stu- 
dents. In this we find ourselves dealing not only with 



1 In tlie preparation of this sketch of the recent high school movement in 
New York, I have had the assistance of Mr. Harry Hopkins Hubbell, a grad- 
uate student in the Teachers College of Columbia University. The Journal 
of the Board of Education for 1896-97, and the annual reports of the City 
Superintendent of Schools are the chief sources of information. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 409 

changes in the organization of schools, but still more with 
a tendency affecting the underlying theory of education. 

For several generations our secondary education worked 
on as best it might, feeling its way among the influences 
of tradition, of social unrest, of political and religious revo- 
lution, with very little attempt at the interpretation of those 
influences under the guidance of any comprehensive theory. 
This was especially true of that dominant side of secondary 
education which was chiefly concerned with preparing stu- 
dents for college matriculation. So far as the cultivation of 
educational doctrine with reference to education in " fitting- 
schools " is concerned, the greater part of the nineteenth 
century was a barren and desolate period indeed. 

In the meantime a deep interest had been aroused in the 
theory of elementary education. Under the influence of the 
better normal schools, this interest was widely propagated 
and was made to awaken some real professional spirit among 
the teachers and supervisors of elementary schools. Much 
of the educational theory so spread abroad was superficial ; 
and much that had been far from superficial in its original 
setting-forth was misunderstood and misapplied by its ex- 
pounders and adherents. But a sincere effort was making 
toward rationalized processes and rational criticism, and that 
is a thing of great price. From another point of view and', 
in a very different way, the theory of education was studied 
profoundly and set forth in luminous addresses and reports 
by a notable line of college presidents. But in college facul- 
ties and in the teaching force of a large part of our second- 
ary schools there reigned a settled indifference if not a positive 
opposition to the study of educational questions with refer- 
ence to their bearing upon education. If this condition of 
things is now passing, the change is mainly due on the one 
hand to the educational spirit and influence of a few great 
college and university presidents, and on the other hand to 
the spirit and influence of the normal schools.^ ^ 

^ With few exceptions, the normal scliools have not concerned themselves 
to any great extent with the problems of secondary education, being necessarily 



410 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Even now one would hardly venture to say that we have 
any full-rounded theory of secondary education. But we 
have a new and better professional attitude. School men 
are more disposed to take account of theoretical considera- 
tions in the attempt to solve school problems. 

Such theoretical considerations as have been brought into 
prominence have been drawn from various quarters. We 
shall take note here of only one group — that which has 
been drawn from the study of adolescence as a stage of indi- 
vidual development. The modern movement of general edu- 
cational theory was, in its earlier stages, predominantly 
psychological, with a strong tendency toward a rather 
abstract individualism. This new movement affecting the 
special theory of secondary education has been taking a 
similar course, with this important difference that it draws 
upon the later and not the earlier psychology. Adolescence 
has become a fad-word in some quarters ; but it cannot be 
doubted that one of the main aspects of any comprehensive 
doctrine of this stage of education will always be that which 

preoccupied with the training of teachers for the elementary schools. But 
the educational spirit which they have fostered has been working far beyond 
the sphere of their direct influence. 

Many of the normal schools have had to do with secondary education in 
other ways which might properly have received notice in such a work as this. 
Their own coui'ses of instruction have sometimes oftered the best training of 
secondary grade accessible in large sections of our land, and they have been 
resorted to accordingly by students who had no intention of teaching for a 
longer period than might be required of normal school graduates by law or by 
rule of the several boards of management. In some cases, too, the normal 
schools have maintained high school departments, or offered parallel courses 
of instruction in the classics and other studies not found in the usual normal 
school curriculum. 

When the name " normal school " was at the height of its popularity, there 
appeared many private schools, especially in the southern and middle western 
states, which laore this designation and offered instruction in a great variety of 
subjects, some pedagogical, others such as are commonly found in the program 
of secondary schools. These institutions, some of them cheap and poor and some 
of more respectable standing, have been the main dependence, for secondary 
education, of a considerable clientage. 

Cf. Newelt,, M. a., Contrihu.fl<ms to the history of normal schools in the 
United States, m Eept. Comr. Ed. for 1898-99, II., pp. 2263-2470. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 411 

depends upon a knowledge of the normal stages and processes 
by which children pass, through youth, up into mature man- 
hood and womanhood. 

The trend of these studies in their bearing upon educa- 
tional problems was discussed four years ago by Dr. William 
H. Burn ham in an address before the New England Associa- 
tion of Colleges and Preparatory Schools.^ Dr. Burnham 
held that the current dissatisfaction with the results of our 
secondary school training is due in large measure to the fact 
that " we have devoted attention to the content of culture 
and to the scholastic product to the neglect of the object 
of culture — the growing youth." From the standpoint of 
psychology and anthropology, the youth of high school age 
presents certain developmental characteristics which are of 
great importance. About this time comes a period of accel- 
erated growth, with attendant increase of vitality. There 
appears a liability to certain nervous diseases, which may, 
however, be outgrown. Great differences are found to exist 
among children of this age as to their liability to fatigue. 
These differences may be measured through outward manifes- 
tations. It has been proposed that students be graded accord- 
ing to their ability to do mental work without fatigue. 

This is a period of functional acquisition and readjustment. 
Mental change and psychical activity appear in " intellectual 
awakening, the storm and stress of doubt, the conversions, 
the intense emotional life, the fluctuating interests and en- 
thusiasms, the general instability, and not infrequently the 
moral aberrations and perversities." How far the period of 
accelerated growth coincides with or differs from that of 
increased intellectual activity is an open question. 

Secondary education, according to Dr. Burnham, may be 

1 See School Review, V., pi). 652-665. The paper was entitled Sugges- 
tions from the psychology of adolescence. The discussion of the paper by 
the Association is reported, loc. cit., pp. 666-683. Dr. Burnham did not 
undertake to give any complete pedagogical evaluation of the results of 
studies in this tield; but I have not seen any later presentation which does so 
much in this direction as the paper referred to, and have accordingly gone back 
to it for this summary. 



412 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

adapted to the needs of developing youth in some such ways 
as these : 

1. By understanding the greatness of the opportunity. 
■' The teachers in the higher schools have their pupils at this 
period of functional acquisition and readjustment, when 
they are open to new impressions with almost hypnotic 
susceptibility." 

2. It is a time for many-sided interest and self-revelation ; 
for self-assertion ; for increasing self -direction. 

3. It is a time for much activity, bodily and mental, 
which the school should turn into legitimate channels. 

4. There are great individual variations at this stage of 
development : hence the schools should " demand an edu- 
cated teacher and give him freedom." 

5. "The opinion is still prevalent that the elementary 
teacher needs special training, but that the secondary teacher 
is such by the grace of God and the authority of one's alma 
mater." Over against this view should be set the demand that 
the secondary school teacher shall have professional training, 
which shall include a study of the psychology of adolescence. 

6. The ordinary college entrance examination is too nar- 
row a test of " the manifoldness of adolescent character." It 
should be supplemented by a report from the candidate's 
teacher in the secondary school, covering those qualities — 
physical and moral as well as intellectual — which must be 
known before the candidate's fitness to undertake the higher 
studies can fairly be determined. 

The suggestion was repeated that the evils affecting our 
secondary and collegiate education are due to the lack of an 
understanding of adolescence rather than to faults of the 
curriculum. The demand that a psychological rather than 
a purely logical arrangement of studies should be followed, 
was illustrated by reference to the Frankfort plan, which 
the speaker warmly approved. 

At the same session of the New England Association, Dr. 
Fred W. Atkinson, then principal of the Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts, high school, presented a paper on The capacities of 



RECENT TENDENCIES 413 

secondary school students, the general trend of which was in 
harmony with that presented by Dr. Burnham. An ex- 
tended discussion followed the reading of these papers, which 
showed that a new direction had been given by them to the 
thought of the Association, and that the suggestions which 
they offered were cordially welcomed. 

The new emphasis upon the study of adolescence has pro- 
foundly influenced the spirit of our secondary education, 
and such change as it has produced has generally been a 
change for the better. Its chief significance thus far lies in 
this general and pervasive influence, rather than in any 
specific reform or constructive undertaking to which it has 
given definite direction. Strong protests have been uttered 
against the excessive individualism which it is supposed to 
foster, and more fundamental objection has appeared against 
any attempt to base a theory of education upon psychology 
alone. But the working out of any comprehensive theory in 
this field is largely a task for the future. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

The following references are selected from the rather voluminous litera- 
ture of the accrediting system : 

The report of a notable debate on this subject in the New England Asso- 
ciation of Colleges and Preparatory Schools may be found in tlie Official 
Report of the annual meeting of that society for 1892 ; and in School and 
College, I., pp. 519-534 (opening address by Mr. Francis A. Water- 
hotjse), and pp. 556-564 (discussion). A series of papers on the same 
subject runs through volumes V. and VI. of the Educational Review 
(1893). The contributors are Cyrus Northrup, V., pp. 187-188 ; Mer- 
rill E. Gates, pp. 189-191 ; James H. Canfield, pp. 291-292; O. M. 
Fernald, pp. 292-295 ; Martin Kellogg, pp. 384-388 ; John Tetlow, 
pp. 388-391 ; Charles K. Adams, VI., pp. 69-70 ; E. W. Coy, pp. 70- 
73 ; Lucy M. Salmon, pp. 223-241. Information concerning the institu- 
tions in which the system has been adopted is presented in the Rept. 
Comr. Ed., 1894-95, v. II , cli. XXV., Admission to college by certificate 
(pp. 1171-1188). See also the paper by President James B. Angell, 
Relations of the university to public education, in Proc. N. E. A., 1887, 
pp. 146-151; that by Professor Frederick Slate, The relation of the 
university to secondary schools, in The University [of California] Chronicle, 



414 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

I., pp. 498-514 (December, 1898) ; and in volume II. of the same period- 
ical, an article, Accrediting of secondary schools, pp. 54-64 (February, 
1899). 

The Report of the Committee of Ten was first issued by the Bureau of 
Education at Washington. When the original edition was exhausted, it 
was reprinted by the American Book Company. It was reprinted, also, 
with the omission of the valuable reports of the sub-committees, in the Rept. 
Comr. Ed. for 1892-93, II., pp. 1415-1448. Several of the more impor- 
tant articles which it called out are reprinted in the same volume of the 
Rept. Comr. Ed., pp. 1448-1491 ; and there follows a bibliography of the 
discussion, pp. 1491-1494. The discussion of the Report in the National 
Council of Education is reproduced in Proc. N. E. A., 1894, pp. 645-669. 

The Report of the Committee on College-Entrance Requirements was 
printed by the National Association in pamphlet form. It appears also in 
Proc. N. k A., 1899, pp. 632-817. 

For the College Entrance Examination Board, see the Proceedings of the 
13M, 14ifA, and \'oth annual conventions of the Association of Colleges and 
Preparatory Schools of the Middle Slates and Maryland ; the First annual 
report of the secretary, in the Ed. Rev., XXII., pp. 264-296, October, 1901 ; 
and Documents, nos. 1 to 6, issued by the Board. . 

The following articles are of value in their bearing upon the recent 
Catholic school movement : 

BuANN, Rev. H. A., D.D. The improvement of parochial schools. The 
American Catholic Quarterly Review, IX., pp. 238-253, April, 1884. 

Shea, John Gilmary, LL.D. Catholic free schools in the United States : 
Their necessity, condition, and future. Loc. cit., pp. 713-725, October, 
1884. 

Murphy, Rev. John T. Catholic secondary education in the United 
States. Loc. cit., XXII., pp. 449-464, July, 1897. 

Burns, Rev. J. A., C.S.C. Catholic secondary schools. Loc. cit., July, 
1901. (Reprint, 14 pp.) Also in Report of the third annual conference 
of the Association of Catholic Colleges of the United States, pp. 25-38. 

Jenkins, Rev. Thos. Jefferson. The amenities of the school adjust- 
ment. The Catholic World, LIV., pp. 582-589, January, 1892. 

O'Malley, Austin, M.D., LL.D. Catholic collegiate education in the 
United States. Loc. cit., LXVIL, pp. 289-304", June, 1898. 

Clarke, Richard H., LL.D. What Catholics have done in the last 
hundred years. In official report of the Catholic Congress at Balti- 
more, 1889, pp. 164-177. 

CoNATY, Rt. Rev. Mgr. Thomas J. The Catholic college of the twen- 
tieth century. In Report of the third annual conference of the Associa- 
tion of Catholic Colleges of the United States, April 10, 11, and 12, 
1901, pp. 5-22. 



RECENT TENDENCIES 415 

Other iuteresting papers appear iu the Reports of the first and second 
of these conferences. 

An interesting discussion of the merits and demerits of private school 
education appears in the Educational Review for March and May, 1902. The 
writers are Messrs, Geokge C. Edwards, A. Franklin Ross, and Freder- 
ick Whitton. Compare Saunders, Louise Sheffield Bkownell, Private 
secondary schools for girls, in Ed. Rev., XX., pp- 357-364, November, 1900, 
and Hull, Lawrence Cameron, Private schools for boys. Loc. cit., pp. 
365-376. 

The annals of the manual training movement are presented in a very 
interesting article by Director C. M. Woodward, entitled T/ie rise and 
progress of manual training, in the Rejit. Corar. Ed. for 1893-94, I., pp. 
877-949. There is a valuable mass of undigested material relating to this 
movement in the four volumes entitled Art and industry, edited by Mr. 
Isaac Edwards Clark, and issued by the Bureau of Education. (Part 1, 
pp. 259 + 842, published 1885 ; part 2, pp. 148 + 1338, published 1892 ; 
part 3, pp. 53 -f 1145, published 1897; part 4, pp. 56 + 1020, published 
1898). Two more volumes in this series are in course of preparation. See 
also the monograph on Art and industrial education, by Mr. Clark in 
Education in the United States, II., pp. 707-767 ; and the two following 
articles : 

Pritchett, Henry S. Industrial and technical training in popular edu- 
cation. Ed. Rev., XXIII., pp. 281-303, March, 1902 ; and 

Rogers, Howard J. The relation of education to industrial and commer- 
cial development. Ed. Rev., XXIII., pp. 490-502, May, 1902. 

For the bibliography of the study of adolescence, reference should be had 
to the several volumes of the Pedagogical Seminary. Attention should be 
called especially to the article by Wm. H. Burnham, The study of adohs- 
cence (I., pp. 174-195) ; that by G. Stanley Hall, The moral and religioiis 
training of children and adolescents (I., pp. 196-210) ; that by E. G. Lan- 
caster, The "psychology and pedagogy of adolescence (V., pp. 61-128) ; 
that by G. Stanley Hall, The high school as the people's college versus 
the fitting school (IX., pp. 63-73), and by the same author. Adolescents 
and high school English, Latin, and algebra (IX., pp. 92-105) ; and to the 
titles relating to adolescence wliich appear in the annual Bibliography of child 
study, prepared by Mr. Louis N. Wilson (volume V. and each succeeding 
volume). See also the bibliography of The psychology of adolescence by 
Will S. Monroe, in the Neio York Teachers' Magazine, V., pp. 280-282, 
October, 1899; and Charles C. Van Liew, The curriculum of secondary 
education in the light of fundamental traits of adolescence. San Francisco, 
1901, pp. 15. 



CHAPTEE XIX 
NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 

The crowding of the curriculum with a multiplicity of sub- 
jects had already begun away back in the old academy days. 
Even then the studies which had to do with useful informa- 
tion were much in demand, and it was with them that the 
crowding took place. After the middle of the nineteenth 
century the demand for subjects of this sort on account of 
their usefulness was mightily reinforced by a demand for 
the same subjects on account of their scientific value. 

The physical sciences were becoming more scientific 
through application of the principle of the conservation of 
energy and its several corollaries. The biological sciences 
were just escaping from the stage of classification and 
becoming for the first time scientific through the doctrine of 
organic evolution. The word science was taking on new sig- 
nificance. With the progress of scientific discovery, new 
vistas were opening up in every direction. Men came to 
expect every conceivable good at the hand of this new 
scientific thought, and for themselves and for others they 
desired encyclopedic knowledge. 

Schools of every grade were profoundly disturbed by the 
rapid changes going on in the larger world of ideas. In the 
seventies or thereabouts, the tendency to overload the curric- 
ulum with scientific studies was accelerated by the action of 
some state legislatures, requiring candidates for the teacher's 
certificate to pass an examination in several of the sciences. 
In some portions of the country it was regarded as no small 
part of the service of the public high schools that they 
prepared their students to pass the teachers' examination. 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 417 

Statutory provisions relating to this examination had accord- 
ingly an indirect, but prompt and powerful, influence upon 
high school courses of study. 

How many other influences were working in the same 
direction, it would be hard to say. But the result was that 
" multiplicity of short information courses," particularly in 
the natural sciences, against which the Committee of Ten pro- 
tested. A group of text-books bearing the titles Fourteen 
weeks in chemistry, and Fourteen weeks in each of several 
other subjects, attained a wide popularity at this time, and 
was highly characteristic of the tendency referred to.^ 

The more recent history of studies can be traced in a 
series of carefully prepared statistical tables. It appears 
from the reports of the Commissioner of Education that 
between the years 1894 and 1900 the percentage of pupils 
in our secondary schools studying Latin, French, German, 
algebra, geometry, physical geography, physiology, rhetoric, 
and general history, was on the increase, the advance being 
especially marked in the case of Latin, algebra, geometry, 
rhetoric, and history. In the same period the percentage of 
those studying Greek, trigonometry, astronomy, physics, 
geology, and psychology declined. For a portion of the 
studies a report is presented covering ten years, from 1889 
to 1899. In that time the percentage studying Latin had 
advanced from 33.62 to 50.29, and the advance in algebra, 
geometry, and general history, though less marked, was very 
noteworthy. In these years the actual number of students 
attending our secondary schools had increased from 367,003 
to 655,227. 

^ It was my fortune to teach for a single winter in the high school of a 
small town in central Illinois. The course of study was three years in length 
and included twenty-four subjects, all required. In his senior year, the 
student in this school studied natural philosophy, zoology, civil government, 
essays, astronom)', physiology, universal history, mental philosophy, and 
chemistry, the most of them for one-third of the year each. I do not think 
this instance was at all exceptional. The school had then no laboratory and 
but little apparatus, and only two teachers were employed in the high school 
department. 

27 



418 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

It would seem that in spite of this enormous increase in 
attendance, the schools had been gravitating back toward 
concentration on a smaller number of studies, and those 
chiefly the central studies of the old humanistic curriculum 
with the omission of Greek. While Greek seems to have 
declined proportionately, the falling off was very slight, and 
the actual increase in the number of students studying that 
language was not far from twelve thousand. It is likely 
that physics, which shows the greatest retrogression in the 
ten-year period, had made greater advance than the most of 
the other subjects in methods of presentation. The percent- 
age of students studying physics by laboratory methods, if 
it could be determined, would probably show a substantial 
increase. 

On the whole, then, we may safely conclude that in their 
actual working our secondary schools, at the same time that 
they are increasing enormously in attendance, are becoming 
more conservative in their schemes of instruction, are less 
given to " short information courses," are more humanistic, 
and on the scientific side are doing more in the direction 
of an improvement of instruction than in that of the exten- 
sion of studies. 

We may note in passing that in the same period, despite 
the tremendous increase in attendance at higher institutions, 
the number of students in our secondary schools who were 
not preparing for college increased more rapidly than those 
who were ; 18.66 per cent were preparing for college in 
1889-90 and 14.05 per cent in 1898-99. 

The report for the year 1899-1900 shows a reversal at 
several points of the tendency indicated in the preceding 
paragraphs. It is impossible to tell whether the change 
marks a new and opposite tendency or merely a temporary 
retrogression. The total number of secondary students ad- 
vanced in the single year from 655,227 to 719,241 ; yet the 
percentage of these who were preparing for college rose at 
the same time from 14.05 to 14.53. The percentage of those 
studying German, rhetoric, English literature, and civics in- 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 419 

creased ; while a diminished percentage is recorded against 
all of the other subjects reported, namely, Latin, G-reek, 
French, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, physics, 
chemistry, physical geography, geology, physiology, psychol- 
ogy, and general history.^ 

The actual courses of study in our secondary schools show 
considerable diversity. The determination of the curriculum 
is generally left, in our school laws, to the discretion of 
municipal or district boards of education, and private schools 
are limited only by the ends which they choose to serve. 
Yet the differences between neighboring schools or between 
the schools of different sections of the country are not so 
wide as one might expect. Owing to the extensive circula- 
tion of all sorts of educational literature, and the frequent 
meeting of teachers one with another in educational con- 
ventions, there is a surprising approach toward uniformity 
in the educational provisions found in all parts of the 
country. Even the poorer and more backward sections are 
often seen striving consciously and earnestly after the ideals 
proposed in more favored districts. High schools may be 
found having courses ranging all the way from one to six 
years in length ; but the four-year course is still the gener- 
ally recognized standard. Private schools have commonly 
a four-year course, though six-year courses are now found in 
some of the great boarding schools for boys. A few recent 
courses are presented, by way of example, in the Appendix.^ 

Within the past half-century, methods of instruction, and 
to a less degree the choice of topics, in secondary school 
subjects generally, have been profoundly influenced by the 
changes which have appeared in the study of the natural 
sciences. Stephen Van Eensselaer, in founding the first 
polytechnic school in the United States (in 1824), gave di- 
rections that chemistry and experimental philosophy should 
not be taught in that institution " by seeing experiments 
and hearing lectures, according to the usual method." In- 
stead, the students should be required "to lecture and 
1 See Appendix A. 2 gge Appendix B. 



420 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

experiment by turn, under the immediate direction of a pro- 
fessor or competent assistant. Thus by a term of labor, 
like apprentices to a trade, they are to become operative 
chemists." ^ 

James C. Booth, an early student in the Eensselaer Insti- 
tute, became professor of chemistry in the Franklin Institute 
at Philadelphia, in 1836, and opened a laboratory which is 
said to have been the first in the United States for instruc- 
tion in chemical analysis and in the application of chemistry 
to the arts. Six years later he became an instructor in the 
Central High School of Philadelphia ; but the laboratory fa- 
cilities of that school at the time, and for many years there- 
after, seem to have been insignificant. In 1862, however, a 
visitor to the school reported that the laboratory, such as it 
was, was of great use, the students being taught to perform 
the experiments in chemistry for themselves. In 1868 more 
complete provision was made for such laboratory work, and 
an assistant was regularly employed for this purpose.^ 

In the seventies and early eighties the establishment of 
laboratories in which experiments and observations should 
be made by the pupils themselves became much more com- 
mon. Within the past ten or fifteen years the requirement 
by some of our foremost colleges of laboratory work on the 
part of those who would offer one of the natural sciences as 
a part of their preparation for college matriculation, has 
given a great impetus to this movement. In 1897 it was 
reported that in Massachusetts &^ high schools were pro- 
vided with good laboratory facilities, 80 had fair or limited 
facilities, and 98 had poor facilities or none. We have seen 
that in the state systems of New York and Minnesota pa^rtic- 
ular attention is paid to the laboratory equipment of the 

1 Quoted by T. C. ME^fDENHALL in Butler, Education in the United 
States, II., pp. 557-558. 

2 Edmonds, History of the Central High School, pp. 57, 179, 200-201, 
211-213. See also Mr. Edmonds' account of the establishment of the high 
school observatory, in 1840, op. cit., eh. 5. This is said to be the fourth 
observatory in this country in the order of their establishment, the first being 
that of Yale College, erected in 1830. 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 421 

schools. And the noble and extensive buildings which have 
been erected in recent years for the high schools of many of 
our great cities, have provided laboratories such as could 
hardly have been found in our best colleges a_ generation 
ago. 

In these laboratories students perform representative ex- 
periments in the science they are pursuing, under the guid- 
ance and subject to the criticism of the instructor. These 
experiments are commonly regarded as illustrative of or 
preparatory to the statement of principles in a text-book, 
though some would go so far as to let the laboratory manual 
supersede the ordinary text-book altogether. The " method 
of re-discovery " has influenced the practice of the schools ; 
yet there are probably few school • laboratories in which the 
students are expected to re-discover on their own account 
the laws of physics or chemistry or any other of the sciences. 
A fine blending of discovery, verification, and correction, 
seems to be the ideal of our best teachers of natural science. 
Much stress is laid on the accurate recording of observations 
and experiments. The students' note-books serve as one of 
the chief tests of the excellence of their work. Oral and 
written recitations by the students fill a large place in the 
work of each term. All this is vastly different from the 
prevailing method of a generation ago. 

The lecture system, to be sure, has never occupied a large 
place in our secondary schools. Clearness of exposition has 
always been, and will doubtless always be, an important ele- 
ment in a teacher's equipment for teaching. Skilful in- 
structors have at all times exercised themselves to help their 
pupils over difficulties in such manner as would prepare 
them to surmount future difficulties for themselves. And 
we read of old-time masters who were famous for their abil- 
ity to ask searching and stimulating questions. But set 
lectures have never found favor here. The text-book was 
until recently the main reliance in school instruction, even 
for classes in the natural sciences. 
, The recent extension of laboratory exercises, together with 



422 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

the proportionate reduction of text-book study, represents a 
fundamental change of view as to the function of instruc- . 
tion. We find accordingly that a similar advance has been 
made in the treatment of other branches than the natural 
sciences. The attempt is made to put the student in touch 
with first-hand materials of knowledge ; and to guide and 
stimulate him to the end of making over these crude facts 
into real knowledge for himself. This procedure seeks to 
give full recognition to both the ideal and the sensuous 
elements in knowledge, and it indicates some appreciation 
of the fact that the ideal element to be truly ideal must be 
supplied by the active agency of the student's own thought, 
exercised upon the products of his own experience. 

In the practice of the schools, we find these principles 
applied, for example, to the teaching of English. In the 
long endeavor to make English a substantial subject of in- 
struction, there was an advance on the grammatical and 
rhetorical teaching to which reference has already been 
made. In the middle of the nineteenth century. Dr. John 
Seely Hart, a Princeton graduate, was setting an unusually 
high standard in the teaching of this subject at the Central 
High School of Philadelphia. Dr. Hart put into practical 
operation a proposal which has been made repeatedly, both 
before and since his day : That Anglo-Saxon be taught as 
one of the chief foundation stones of the English course. The 
study, however, did not meet with favor in Philadelphia, 
and was soon dropped from the programme of the school.^ 
At the same time. Dr. Hart laid strong emphasis upon a 
study of the history of the English language and literature, 
and this subject soon came to be the dominant branch of 
instruction in English. Dr. Hart prepared text-books for 
use in this study, and other works of a similar sort appeared 
about this time, and within the years next following. 

In some of these books selections from the authors stud- 
ied constituted the bulk of the text, and the historical mat- 
ter was subsidiary. But as the historical portion attracted 
1 Edmonds, op. cit., pp. 131-133. 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 423 

more interest, the selections became subsidiary, or were 
relegated to a separate volume, to be referred to for illustra- 
tion of the narrative. Shaw's Manual, as edited for use in 
the schools, is fairly representative of this stage of the 
movement. 

As early as the seventies, some teachers saw the weakness 
of a course of instruction in which pupils were -taught the 
history of the literature while the literature itself remained 
unknown.! It was not, however, until the colleges began 
to make definite requirements in this field that the literary 
study of English masterpieces became at all general in the 
schools or took on a definite scholastic character. In the 
eighties, the entrance requirements of Harvard College began 
to exert a large influence in this direction. The New Eng- 
land Association and the Association of the Middle States 
and Maryland followed with their proposed improvements. 
And now we find the students in our secondary schools 
getting some measure of that immediate acquaintance with 
English literature which Daniel Defoe and Benjamin 
Franklin looked for from afar. It may even be questioned 
whether the systematic study of rhetoric and of the history 
of English literature has not been unduly disregarded in 
this striving after an acquaintance with the veritable master- 
pieces. 

The same general tendency has appeared in the teaching 
of history. This subject has been, perhaps, the most sadly 
neglected of all the main lines of study in our secondary 
schools. Even after Greek and Roman history came to be 
required for admission to the classical course in college, the 

^ Mr. J. B. McChesney, for many years principal of the high school at 
Oakland, California, has given me an interesting account of his early efforts 
to introdnce a study of English masterpieces into that school. The matter 
was discussed with Ed\\'ard Rowland Sill, then a teacher in the high school. 
This was in 1872. It was agreed that the change proposed was desirable, but 
books for the use of pupils were hard to get. Professor William Swinton was 
urged to supply the deficiency, but the resulting volume only partially served 
the purpose. A beginning was made, however, in the Oakland high school, 
with such editions of the desired works as could be got. Within a few years 
thereafter many school editions of such masterpieces became available. 



424 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

subject was commonly treated as merely incidental to the 
main lines of school instruction. The history of the United 
States was still more seriously neglected. The high schools 
too commonly expected the grammar schools to give all 
needed instruction in that subject. The colleges have not 
given it serious attention as a matriculation subject till 
within the past few years. 

But this state of things is rapidly changing. Within a 
decade several serious works have been put forth looking to 
the improvement of historical instruction. The question of 
method most earnestly discussed of late among teachers of 
history is that relating to the place and use of the original 
materials, " sources," of history. And while opinions and 
practices differ widely, such materials are much more largely 
employed in the schools than they were in former years. 

The tendencies of method in other subjects show some 
connection with those in the subjects already referred 
to. In the study of modern languages, facility in conversa- 
tion is not commonly sought ; though there are schools here 
and there which lay great stress upon this acquisition. The 
ability to read the languages readily and with understand- 
ing, and to enter into an appreciation of their literatures, 
are the ends chiefly striven for. To these ends grammati- 
cal study is of course necessary. But the grammar is 
studied, on the whole, less abstractly than formerly, and 
more in its actual embodiment in literature. 

Greater effort is made now than a generation ago to gain 
a reading knowledge of the ancient classics. More hope is 
held out to classes in Latin and Greek, that they may, with 
attention, attain to such mastery. There is much difference 
of opinion among leading teachers as to the proportionate 
attention to be paid to "sight reading; " and as to the value 
of the " inductive method " in the mastery of grammatical 
principles : but actual practice seems to be tending slowly 
toward a middle course, which retains much of the old-time 
thorough discipline in Latin and Greek grammar, but brings 
this training into more vital connection with the study of 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 425 

classic literature. The writing of Latin verse is generally 
discarded. Prose composition is receiving increased atten- 
tion, and is now more imitative in its character than formerly, 
being commonly based on the Latin or Greek masterpiece 
which the class is studying at the same time. Emphasis, 
possibly too great, is laid on exact pronunciation and expres- 
sive reading. The question of approaching Attic through 
modern Greek has been warmly discussed, but the proposed 
change finds little if any acceptance in actual practice. 

In mathematics, much stress is laid upon the original 
demonstration of theorems, particularly in plane and solid 
geometry. It appears from time to time that instruction in 
mathematics is weakened by a failure to insist upon the use of 
accurate language in demonstrations ; and from time to time 
fresh efforts are put forth to strengthen the work on this 
side. At the present time especial stress is^laid in some 
quarters upon the need of more careful and accurate English 
expression in all school exercises. The attempt to teach 
English expression, oral and written, simply through the 
medium of instruction in other branches does not promise 
well ; but there is, fortunately, a growing recognition of the 
fact that all teachers must have at least some share in the 
responsibility for such instruction. 

The improvement of method in teaching, and the better- 
ment of secondary instruction with reference to the choice 
and arrangement of materials, have been quickened by the 
growth of a literature of secondary education. Except for 
school text-books we have had nothing to correspond even 
remotely with the Gymnasial-'pddagogilz of the Germans, 
until a very recent day. The annual reports of a few asso- 
ciations and two or three special periodicals prepared the 
way for such a literature, but its beginning may fairly be 
dated from the publication of the Report of the Committee 
of Ten, in 1893. Other important reports have followed ; and 
the earlier volumes of two important series of special hand- 
books,^ give promise of better things in this pedagogic field. 

^ The Teachers professional lihrary, edited by President Nicholas llurray 
Butler, and published by the Macniillan Company ; and the American teachers' 



426 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The relation of the public high schools to instruction in 
religion is suggestive of that great movement toward the 
secularization of education which has been going on in many 
lands. The old academies had pretty generally taken their 
stand on the ground of non-sectarian religious instruction. 
The earlier high schools occupied a similar position. But 
the great educational awakening, with the new development 
of public schools which it fostered, the rapid increase of our 
Koman Catholic citizenship with the resulting educational 
controversies, and other influences arising from our national 
expansion and internal development, tended to drive the 
schools from this ground toward a more distinct religious 
neutrality. 

Back of those influences which have been enumerated has 
undoubtedly been that profound movement of modern 
thought which is seen in the shifting of emphasis from the 
doctrinal (dogmatic or metaphysical) to the ethical side of 
our world-view. Countless forces and tendencies have been 
at work bringing about this change. It has affected theology 
as well as education, and is bound up with many movements 
in other departments of human affairs.^ One significant as- 
pect of the general tendency has appeared in the formation 
of the Society for Ethical Culture, established by Dr. Felix 
Adler in our Centennial Year, which is both symptom and 
contributory cause of the change we are considering. And 
apart from any religious or other organized school of thought, 
the leaven of this manner of thinking has been working 
among our people. 

series, edited by Dean James E. Russell, and published by Longmans, Green, 
&Co. 

1 Thomas Thacher said in 1807 : ' It is to be lamented that moral and 
social virtue is not more frequently inculcated from the pulpit, and that it is 
so little taught in our schools of learning. A compendium of ethics is both 
necessary and much wanted." He thought Cicero's Offices, supplemented from 
"the sublime morality of the New Testament," might serve this purpose. 
See A discourse delivered at Milton, etc. 

There is a luminous note on the shifting of emphasis in Christian apolo- 
getics, in Professor G. H. Howison's The limits of evolution and other essays, 
pp. 264-266. 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 427 

In different portions of this wide land the educational 
outcome of this tendency is various in kind and degree. 
There is not uncommonly found in our public schools, both 
elementary and higher, a prevalent and pervasive religious 
atmosphere, an influence emanating from the personal char- 
acter of the instructors. In many of these schools it is still 
customary to open the daily session with the reading of a 
passage from the Bible or the repetition of the Lord's 
Prayer; or with the singing of a devotional or patriotic 
hymn. But whatever there may be of religious tone and 
spirit in these schools is of a very general and unobtrusive 
sort, and far removed from ecclesiasticism. Teachers wholly 
indifferent to dogmatic religion or in known opposition 
thereto are freely employed in the schools ; but would 
probably be found to constitute but a small minority of the 
teaching force of the country. In some high schools ele- 
mentary ethics is taught, along with elementary psychology, 
or perhaps economics. But this is unusual. The moral 
force of the high school depends, then, mainly on the per- 
sonal influence of the teachers in their instruction in the 
ordinary school subjects ; on the government of the school ; 
and on the relations of the students one with another. 

Some subjects of instruction offer especial advantages as 
regards the formation of high ideals of conduct. The teach- 
ing of literature, and particularly the literature of the 
mother tongue, is found to be of great value in this respect 
— the more so, perhaps, when untimely moralizing is dis- 
pensed with, and noble sentiments are permitted to make 
their appeal through the charm of their artistic presenta- 
tion. Choice works of plastic and pictorial art are rapidly 
finding their way into our schoolrooms. There is hardly 
any systematic study of aesthetics in the programmes of 
the schools. These works are expected to accomplish their 
mission by their mere presence, supplemented sometimes 
by an informal discussion of their merits ; or they serve to 
reinforce the aesthetic side of instruction in literature and in 
drawing. In some schools music is steadily cultivated, and 



428 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

holds an honored place. The study of history at the hands 
of teachers who treat it as a record of real human activities 
— not reading into it impossible moralities nor making it a 
mere play of physical forces nor, worse yet, deadening it 
down into technical erudition — is full of ethical vitality. 
So it has shown itself to many students in recent years. 

But skilful teachers make instruction in all subjects 
moral — by arousing a pure desire for truth, a spirit of 
intellectual honesty, a will to work and to overcome difficul- 
ties, and a long line of modest and every-day virtues. 

It is a little difficult to get any comprehensive survey of 
our middle school teachers. They belong to a profession 
that is slowly and painfully shaping itself into a real profes- 
sion. Even yet the professional standards which obtain in 
the teaching bodies of different states and even of different 
communities in the same state are various and variable. 

A Massachusetts report for the year 1897 shows that one 
per cent of the high school teachers then employed in that 
state were graduates of scientific schools, 13 per cent of nor- 
mal schools, Q^ per cent of colleges, and the remaining 20 
per cent unclassified.^ 

In the state of New York, in 1898, 32 per cent of the 
teachers in secondary schools — not including principals — 
were college graduates, 39 per cent were normal school 
graduates, 19 per cent were high school graduates, and 10 
per cent had had other training. These figures include pri- 
vate academies as well as public high schools. They include, 
moreover, one-year, two-year, and three-year schools, as well 
as fully developed high schools and academies. At the same 
time and in the same schools, of the principals, 51 per cent 
were college graduates, 35 per cent were normal school 
graduates, 8 per cent were high school graduates, and 6 per 
cent had had other training.^ 

An inquiry into the preparation of teachers in the secon- 

1 Hill, How far the public high school is a just charge, etc., appendix, p. 1. 

2 University of the State of Neio York, High School Department, Sixth 
annual report, pp. 336-340. Interesting information with reference to 
teachers' salaries is added. 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 429 

dary schools of California, made in the fall of 1897, showed 
that of 522 teachers then employed in the public high schools 
of the state, 308, or 59 per cent, were college graduates. An 
incomplete list prepared three years later showed, among 
other things, that over one per cent of the high school 
teachers of the state at that time held the doctorate in 
philosophy. 

A committee of the National Educational Association — 
known as the "Committee of Fifteen" — reported in 1895, 
among other topics, on the training of teachers for secondary 
schools. This committee declared that "The degree of 
scholarship required for secondary teachers is by common 
consent fixed at a collegiate education." They proposed a 
course of special training for such teachers, consisting of 
instruction during the senior year of the college course in 
psychology, methodology, school systems, and the history, 
philosophy, and art of education ; and a graduate year of 
practice in teaching, under close supervision, supplemented 
by advanced studies in educational theory. 

This proposal is far in advance of common practice or 
requirement. Very few of the American states make any 
specific requirement for the high school teacher's certificate 
beyond that for a license to teach in the elementary schools.^ 
There are, on the other hand, many secondary schools in 
which teachers rarely obtain employment, if at all, unless 
they^ are college graduates ; and there are large sections of 
the country in which common usage is rapidly tending in 
this direction. In many of our leading universities a 
teacher's recommendation or certificate is granted only to 
such graduates as have taken a substantial course of studies 
in the history, theory, and practice of education. And the 
Teachers College at Columbia University is setting a high 
standard of requirements for prospective teachers in sec- 
ondary schools.^ 

1 One notable exception is the state of California. 

2 See the report on The certification of college and university graxluates as 
teachers of the common schools, in the School Eevieiv for June, 1899, pp. 331-371. 



430 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The latter half of the nineteenth century gave us a goodly 
number of schoolmasters, in both public and private schools, 
who are worthy to rank with the best in our history. The 
career of some of those mentioned in the chapter on teachers 
in the academies overlaps this period. Others, among the 
best of that half century, are still among us, and many of 
them in the full vigor of active life. It will be a pleasant 
undertaking of some future historian to tell of their work 
and influence. Still others have fallen, whose memory is 
cherished by their pupils and fellow laborers. 

John S. Hart, who was principal of the Central High 
School of Philadelphia during the middle years of the cen- 
tury, is one of the most marked figures in our early high 
school history. Through hard struggles, he had gained a 
college education. His breadth of scholastic training was 
united with a clear perception of the needs of the " common 
people." He understood the mission of his school, and by 
wisely directed efforts he drew to it the attention and the 
support of the community. It was a fortunate thing for 
that institution that it had Alexander Dallas Bache to clear 
the ground and Principal Hart to lay the foundations for its 
great undertaking. 

Phillips Brooks made Francis Gardner his representative 
schoolmaster of the nineteenth century. A man in whom 
radical and conservative elements were strangely mixed, a 
man who suffered and who often made those about him 
suffer, his unsparing truthfulness left a lasting impression 
on the character of the better-endowed of his students. 
The established routine of the school had a strong hold 
upon him; and when the diverse popular aspirations and 
strivings which have been the life of the high school move- 
ment, jostled roughly against the Boston Latin School in the 
early seventies, he was disturbed and distressed, and in all 
likelihood did not fully comprehend the changes which were 
taking place.^ 

1 For Francis Gardner, see Jenks, Historical sketch, pp. 55-58, where 
diverse views are presented. The story of the changes, attempted and 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 431 

Another early high school principal, Cyrus Knowlton, 
holds an honored place in the history of the Hughes High 
School of Cincinnati.^ Among the great number of women 
employed in our public high schools have been many who 
have taken a high place, because of the excellence of their 
instruction and the ennobling influence of their personal 
character. It is a notable fact that not only in English 
literature, in which they are commonly supposed to do 
their most effective teaching, but in mathematics, not a few 
of them have achieved a marked success ; and there is 
probably no department in which some of their number 
have not risen to a high grade of excellence. Among the 
masters of privately managed institutions, a high place must 
be given to Henry Augustus Coit, whose name is closely 
connected with the parental type of boarding-school man- 
agement. The prompting to individual experiment has 
brought forth private schools even more plentifully within 
the past half-century than in the preceding period. The 
moving to teach has turned many men, and women too, in 
this direction, and worthy achievements have been wrought 
out in such undertakings, which cannot, however, receive 
separate notice here. 

The government of our best secondary schools, and even 
of many of the smaller schools, which are comparatively 
unknown, presents much which may be regarded with 
genuine satisfaction. The relations of teachers and students 
are comparatively informal. There is little consciousness 
of official or artificial barriers between them. While strict 
disciplinary measures are often found necessary and are 
often enforced with vigor, the prevalent type of high school 
and academy government is that which treats the students 
as if they were already ladies and gentlemen, and throws 
them as far as possible on their own resources. Some 
interesting and successful experiments have been made in 

accomplished, in the plan of the Latin School, from 1868 to 1878, is told by 
Principal Merrill, Id., pp. 66-75. It is highly interesting and suggestive. 
1 Annual of the alumni, 1870. 



432 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

the organization of regular systems of self-government 
among students. It would seem, however, that only a 
principal who has the strength and skill to govern well is 
capable of making a school into a truly self-governing 
body. 

Under any system of government, the social life of the 
school is the chief teacher of morals. The social organiza- 
tion of secondary school students is for that reason, and for 
others as well, of very great importance. Public high 
schools, private schools, and academies are much alike in 
this respect, and distinctively ecclesiastical establishments 
are not far different. The instinct of association is strong 
in our youth, and it finds expression in all sorts of clubs, 
leagues, societies, and fraternities. The example of the 
colleges has been influential in the schools in this par- 
ticular. The several classes are commonly organized, with 
class officers, and have occasional gatherings of a social 
character. The offices of the highest class in school are 
sought for with keen competition. Athletic associations, 
football and baseball clubs, and the like, are usually 
maintained. Several schools are often joined in an athletic 
league ; and the annual field days are great occasions in the 
school year. The athletic records and trophies of a school 
are very highly prized. Debating clubs and other literary 
societies are maintained with much interest. Contests in 
debate with neighboring schools call forth a spirit of emula- 
tion like that displayed in athletic struggles. Musical 
organizations are perhaps less common, but are among the 
most pleasing of school societies. Annual publications by 
successive classes present a record of the varied interests^ of 
the larger schools, and afford a field for budding literary and 
artistic genius to show its quality. Secret, Greek-letter 
societies are sometimes formed after the fashion of the 
colleges. Not unfrequently, too, voluntary associations for 
religious culture and observance are maintained by the 
students. All of these organizations are commonly under 
the immediate control of the students themselves ; teachers 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 433 

frequently attend the various meetings, but more as friendly 
advisers than as governors. 

Those who have completed the course of study in a 
flourishing secondary school will usually be found organized 
in an alumni association. The monthly or annual meetings 
of such an association become of increasing significance as 
the years pass and its numbers and influence are enlarged. 

An account of the development of student activities in 
the past half-century would throw much light on the inner 
educational tendencies of our secondary schools. In the 
published histories of individual schools and in the occasional 
chapters of reminiscence by old-time masters and pupils, 
there is slowly accumulating a deal of information which 
will enable some historian of school life to tell the story and 
declare its mea-ning. 

For the Phillips Exeter Academy, the story has been well 
told by Mr. Cunningham. Boating was introduced into 
that institution in 1864. The four-oared boat, Winona, 
was the pioneer craft, and it explored a new realm of sport 
which the boys were happy to enter and possess. Cricket 
and baseball appeared the following year. This was about 
the time when baseball was first winning its way into 
public favor and recognition as the national game. It soon 
drove cricket from the Exeter field. 

In 1871 the trustees bought new athletic grounds and 
the school sports assumed a new importance. The first 
recorded game of baseball with an outside nine was in 
1875, when the Academy boys defeated the Eagle Club of 
Exeter by a score of 28 to 12 ! The interest in baseball 
still centred in games between nines representing the 
several classes. But in 1878 Exeter defeated Andover in 
their first inter-academy game, and in the return game 
Andover defeated Exeter. 

Football in the sixties was still the old-fashioned game. 
But in the seventies it took on a more modern form, and 
the football struggle with Andover began the same year as 
that in baseball. The lengthening record of this never- 

28 



434 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

ending contest is preserved with care in both institutions 
and whatever their scholastic announcements may say, it is a 
noteworthy part of tlieir educational equipment. Track 
athletics liave been added, and here the " record " has a new 
meaning, of no small significance. 

The Exonian, a paper managed by a close group of 
students, made its appearance along with inter-academy 
athletics. It was not easy for either teachers or pupils to 
understand at first how the freedom of the press in school 
could be compatible with good order and student subordina- 
tion. But a better understanding came with experience, 
and now at Exeter as elsewhere student publications are 
very much a matter of course.^ 

Mr. Edmonds has given a more extended account of stu- 
dent activities in the Central High School of Philadelphia. 
This school has had a strong journalistic bent, and has sent 
out such effective writers as G-eorge Alfred Townsend and 
Henry George, with many others well known in newspaper 
circles. A surprising list of student publications issued be- 
fore the Civil War, is preserved. One of these, The Minute 
Book, was issued as early as 1849, and it is said to have had 
"contemporaries and rivals." During this same period the 
school abounded in literary societies ; and there was a 
" Literary Congress," in which each society was represented 
by three delegates. 

Journalism languished in the school during the Civil 
War, but after that struggle it was revived. Many ventures 
ran each a brief career; but with the setting up of The 
Mirror, in 1885, the literary activity of the students found 
a well-ordered and well-established means of expression. 

The centre of student interest, which in the days of Pres- 
ident Hart was found in the various literary and debating 
societies, seems to have shifted within the past generation to 
athletics. Before the war, there was but little organized 
sport in the school, though the playground was the scene of 
some lively games, and town-ball, a forerunner of baseball, 
1 Op. cit., p. 272 ff. 



NOTES ON SCHOOL LIFE AND STUDIES 435 

aroused considerable interest. The change has come gradu- 
ally. It had hardly begun until the seventies. In the Cen- 
tennial year an athletic association was formed. Football was 
then played, somewhat after the manner of the Harrow game. 
There were a few games with neighboring institutions. The 
next year the team set about mastering the Rugby rules. A 
regular field day was held in 1876, the records of which 
have been preserved. 

Baseball was still the favorite game, and so continued 
well on into the eighties. The formation of the Intercolle- 
giate Football Association in 1884 quickened the interest 
in football in the schools as well as the colleges. The great 
development of active student life in recent days is dated 
from the school year of 1888-89. A school yell was adopted, 
and prodigious interest in football was aroused. At the 
present time there are six regular forms of athletic activity 
in full progress. They are football, baseball, rowing, track 
athletics, basket-ball, and cricket.^ 

In this school, as in many others, the athletic interest 
is found to serve good ends. At the same time that this 
fact is recognized, there is much regret expressed that debat- 
ing clubs and other literary societies do not flourish as in 
former years. The best school men are generally interested, 
sincerely and deeply, in the athletic activities of their stu- 
dents, but would be glad to see other wholesome forms of 
student activity as well sustained. 

1 Edmonds, History of the Central High School, ch. 11 and 12. 



CHAPTEE XX 
THE OUTLOORi 

The keynote of current educational thought seems to have 
been sounded by Professor John Dewey in his saying that, 
The school is not ^preparation for life : it is life. Education 
is to provide for the future needs of pupils by providing for 
their real present needs. One of the most notable and com- 
prehensive tendencies of secondary education, and of all 
education, is accordingly the tendency to seek an under- 
standing of the living, growing persons who go to school ; 
and to treat them in a way to promote their healthy growth. 
This doctrine is sound at bottom. Persons are the most pre- 
cious things in all the world ; and child persons are as pre- 
cious as persons fully matured. In this view we have true 
humanism. It is a view that makes the school interesting. 
It is moral; for what is morality after all but fulness of 
personal life ? It is religious, too. " The knowledge of our- 
selves," said John Calvin, " is not only an incitement to 
seek after God, but likewise a considerable assistance toward 
finding him." 

On the one side, such doctrine as this is leading us into 
individualism. It prompts the demand for free election of 
studies in the secondary school ; for individualized processes 
of instruction. 

On the other side, the study of development has shown 
how strangely dependent the individual is on his social 

1 The greater part of this chapter was given in an address on Recent ten- 
dencies in secondary education, delivered before the annual Convocation of the 
University of the State of New York, at Albany, July 2, 1901. Considerable 
change has been made, however, in the revision of that address for the present 
use. 



THE OUTLOOK 437 

relationships. We see, in fact, that there is nothing worth 
the name of human personality that has not arisen under 
the stress and strain of getting on with one's fellows. So 
we have come to attach new significance to the mere fact 
that in school many young people come together and have 
varied dealings one with another. We are seeing that social 
intercourse is not a mere accident of school education, but 
one of the chief things in school education. 

We may go further, and say that the school is not only 
life : it is preparation for life. Just because it is life, it 
looks forward to more life. " The thoughts of youth are 
long, long thoughts." Any life that does not look forward 
is poor and mean ; and we should make a losing bargain if 
we exchanged the old school that concerned itself only with 
the future, for a new school which should concern itself only 
with the present. 

So our secondary education looks forward to the citizenship 
which awaits all of our students, and consciously prepares 
them for its duties. Whether they are destined for the more 
extended training of the university or not, it undertakes to 
direct their attention toward public affairs, well knowing 
that the time is already come for them to take anticipatory 
interest in such things. It takes account, too, of the fact 
that each citizen must have a life work peculiarly his own, 
in order to discharge his full obligation to the body politic. 
How secondary education may pay due regard to this fact 
and yet avoid the injustice of binding our youth at an early 
age to a course in life which may not be rightly their own, 
is one of the hardest problems with which we have to deal. 

May I venture to add, that our secondary education looks 
to the larger life. It has a tliought for life that is above 
and all about this life. We are finding that the eager ado- 
lescence of our academies and high schools is above all skep- 
tical and religious. The two things go together and belong 
together at this age. Education does not altogether meet 
the needs of the present life of our youth if it does not verge 
upon the shadowy fields of things too real to be seen. 



438 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

The more important tendencies of our secondary education 
seem to lie in the directions indicated above. Let us now 
examine them a little more closely. 

1. And first some tendencies affecting our courses of study. 
A recent writer has said that " The time for the finishing 
school has gone by." With equal truth it may be said that 
the time for the " fitting school " has gone by. I do not 
mean by " fitting school " a school for the education of youth 
who are preparing for college, but rather a school which pre- 
pares for college whether it educates or not. The proper 
business of every school is education. The growing recogni- 
tion of this fact is one of the most marked of present ten- 
dencies. The sharp distinction between preparation for 
college and " preparation for life " is fading out. It seems 
to be our present working hypothesis that, so far as general 
culture is concerned, preparation for a liiglier scJiool, rightly 
conceived, coincides with preparation for life. This principle 
may not extend to secondary schools of a vocational char- 
acter. It can hardly be accepted as a finality with regard 
even to schools of general culture. But it has stood exami- 
nation and trial sufficiently well to warrant us in employing 
it as a working hypothesis. 

We may put it in different ways. Secondary education 
which is not good enough for the purposes of the colleges is 
not good enough for the purposes of life. Schools of middle 
grade which fail to give good preparation for life, fail also to 
grr'e good preparation for college. Either way you turn it, 
the doctrine calls for some re-examination of our school cur- 
riculums, and perhaps for some little change. 

In the history of our courses of study, we began with one 
fixed and strongly unified course for all. The demand for a 
recognition of varied needs has led to numerous changes from 
this old, invariable standard. Parallel courses were first 
offered, each of them fixed and definite. Then options were 
allowed in one or all of these parallel courses. The number 
of such courses was increased. The range of options was 
enlarged. Then we began to hear of the doctrine of free 



THE OUTLOOK 439 

election. This seems to be the polar opposite of that fixed 
course for all with which we started. It was necessary for 
us to come to this extreme, and get a survey of the whole 
movement from this side, in order to find out just where in 
the intervening territory we belong. 

One of the first things that appear from this sort of exami- 
nation is the fact that English is an indispensable subject 
in any curriculum. This is admitted by nearly every one, 
even when it is not admitted that any other study is indis- 
pensable. English has taken the place occupied by Latin 
in the old curriculum. If other single subjects are not es- 
sential, ^NQ, are coming to think that an outlook into certain 
other broad fields of study is necessary. The Committee of 
Ten led the way in pointing out this need, and the later 
Committee on College-Entrance Eequirements has formu- 
lated a general plan under which the need may be met. In 
tact, the committee last named seems to have thrown a real 
Copernican suggestion into the midst of our confusion in 
this matter. What they have proposed will not differ very 
greatly in any given case from what is already customary 
in many schools. But it serves to show how the Ptolemaic 
tables of courses which many large schools present may be 
simplified in accordance with ideas which they really imply. 
Parallel courses with a fair number of options ; election 
limited only by the requirement of "constants " in groups ; 
and even free election under the direction of an efficient 
school principal, will all come in practice to pretty nearly 
the same thing : and what they come to is fairly rep- 
resented by the recommendations of this national Com- 
mittee on College-Entrance Eequirements. 

But what does it all amount to ? We may put the case in 
some such way as this : Education from the cradle to the 
grave is largely a matter of keeping good company. For 
our adolescent, with his vibrations between the desire to be 
let alone and the extreme craving for companionship, habit- 
uation to good company is of prime importance. The school 
tends to set one free from mere dependence upon the actual 



440 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

companionships of daily intercourse, extending the relation- 
ship, as it does, to the great and good of all times and all 
lands\ It increases one's capacity for finding companions in 
the secret chambers of books and in the still more shrewdly 
hidden secrets of the material world. Our young scholar is 
a provincial of the provincials. He must now go to court, 
and come to know the wisest and fairest of this world. He 
is to be introduced to the best, and among them he may 
make such special friendships as he is fitted for. 

Something like this, I believe, is the significance of 
Matthew Arnold's saying that in secondary schools the 
youth is to find " vital knowledge," though we.may not make 
Matthew Arnold responsible for our interpretation of vital 
knowledge. It is only contact with the world of culture 
that can bring our young people out of their crude, provin- 
cial individuality ; that can really vitalize their humanity. 
They must be brought into relations with that one world of 
culture, if they are to be made really alive. But they may 
touch it more intimately at some points than at others, for 
what is vital knowledge for one is not always vital knowl- 
edge for another. 

These considerations suggest various conclusions. No 
study is worthy a place in our programme which has not 
commanded the full devotion of some master mind. All stu- 
dents must be introduced to the same civilization, and since 
all are human their several ways of approaching it will not be 
fundamentally different. What seems still more significant 
is this : Even if it be true that what is best for one student 
is a little different from what is best for another, the fact 
remains that each student needs for his own purposes^ a 
well-organized, unitary curriculum. I fear we are tending 
toward miscellaneous election from a miscellaneous mass of 
offered courses. But there is a deeper tendency, which will 
surely become dominant — a tendency toward organic elec- 
tion from what is offered, no matter how miscellaneous that 
may be. A different curriculum for each student, if you 
will ; but a real curriculum. 



THE OUTLOOK 441 

One special question cannot be overlooked — the question 
of the status of classical studies. But little is heard here 
in these days of the old-time controversy over Latin and 
Greek in the schools. Perhaps it is because the battle has 
been won by the opponents of absolute requirements in these 
subjects. There are many true friends of Latin and Greek 
who are not friendly to required Latin and Greek ; and the 
number of schools is now small indeed in which the student 
may not omit one or both of the classic languages. 

It is significant that, at the same time, Latin is greatly on 
the gain in the schools. The case of Greek is different, and 
some good friends of classical learning are ready to predict 
that the study of Greek will at no very distant day be 
handed over to the colleges. The opening of courses in be- 
ginning Greek in some of the higher institutions is thought 
to point in this direction. The fact should not be disregarded, 
however, that while Greek has not quite held its own rela- 
tively, in secondary schools, the actual number of those 
studying Greek in the schools has greatly increased in the 
past decade. 

On the whole, the enlargement of freedom is not working 
badly in its bearing on classical studies. If fewer students 
are pursuing such studies because required to do so or under 
the pressure of tradition, more are pursuing them from 
deliberate choice, either their own or their advisers'. And 
this may be hoped for in the future. It is not simply to be 
desired that all should study the ancient languages or that 
an increasing number should study them ; but rather that 
those whose surest approach to vital knowledge is along the 
historical line that our civilization has followed since the 
north of Europe began to be civilized, shall follow that line 
freely and whole-heartedly. There will always be in this 
number a goodly proportion of the choicest spirits among 
us. It is highly desirable that they should have all stim- 
ulus and encouragement to do their best in their own best 
way; and it is equally desirable that those whose best 
approach to vital knowledge is along some other line should 
be equally encouraged and receive equal stimulus. 



442 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Whether through the classic literature or that of the 
modern languages, English included, or through some 
study of music and the other arts, a sound aesthetic culture 
should be more generally sought after in our schools. This 
is especially difficult in the education of our adolescents, 
with their callow contempt for beauty or equally callow 
sentimentality. Instruction in the appreciation of art that 
shall not degenerate into pretty nothings and that shall 
really touch and teach the soul of youth, will accomplish 
untold good, and ways will surely be found through which 
such instruction may actually be given. 

Before leaving the question of the course of study, let us 
glance at the relation of the colleges to the schools. There 
has been a good deal of just complaint from the side of the 
schools, that the colleges shaped their entrance requirements 
solely with reference to what they believed to be their own 
needs, and not at all with reference to the conditions which 
must be reckoned with in the schools. Of late we have heard 
complaint from the side of college men that the secondary- 
school men were becoming too independent ; that they ex- 
pect the college to accept whatever they may offer. There 
is great hope for the future in this growing self-respect of 
secondary-school teachers. It suggests very pointedly that 
school and college should meet on common ground and 
work out their common problems together. It was a bad 
state of things when the question whether students prepar- 
ing for college should take one study or another in the sec- 
ondary school, could be decided by a compromise between 
rival college departments, represented in a faculty meeting, 
without a moment's consideration of what might be intrinsi- 
cally best for the students themselves at this stage of their 
schooling. College faculties should remember that every 
vote which they pass relative to entrance requirements is 
legislation for the internal working of secondary schools. 
Such legislation should at least be based on some intelligent 
conception of the nature and functions of the secondary 
school. 



THE OUTLOOK 443 

To put it in other words : The question of college entrance 
requirements is a question of relationship between two insti- 
tutions, each having its separate responsibility to the public. 
The college should set the secondary school the example of 
considering both terms of this relationship with perfect fair- 
ness. It has sometimes happened that the men of the acad- 
emies and high schools have taken a more comprehensive 
view of this question than have the men of the colleges and 
universities. 

One thing seems reasonably clear ; and that is that this 
question of admission requirements is an educational ques- 
tion, and should be settled on educational grounds. It seems 
equally clear that the same form of settlement should be 
employed as that which serves in dealing with the larger 
question of the proper formulation of curriculums for all non- 
technical secondary schools. At least for present purposes, 
the method followed by the Committee on College-Entrance 
Eequirements in this matter seems worthy of general ac- 
ceptance, although some specific recommendations of this 
committee are open to objection. 

We may draw up a second working hypothesis in some 
such terms as the following : The interests of higher educa- 
tion will test he served hy such prescription of college entrance 
requirements, and such tests of preparation, as will do the 
most to vitalize instruction in the secondary schools. 

2. There are many reasons why the question of teachers 
is more important than the question of studies. And the 
conviction is now well grounded that teachers of secondary 
schools as well as teachers of primary schools must be spe- 
cially trained for their work. Twenty years ago this was not 
true. No one institution has done more to bring American 
schoolmen to a new mind in this matter than has Columbia 
University, with its Teachers College. But the pioneering 
was done by western state universities, and they do not 
intend to be left behind in a movement which has now 
become national. Voices will still be heard protesting 
against the newer demand for professional training on the 



444 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

part of those who would teach iu our high schools and acad- 
emies. But the time is past when such objection can seri- 
ously hamper the general movement. Let it be added that 
the time is past when that movement can be seriously ham- 
pered by mistakes and indequacies in the training attempted. 
But it is necessary that such mistakes and inadequacies be 
corrected as rapidly as possible, and such correction is now 
the order of the day. 

What do we look for in our teachers ? First, by all means, 
a moral quality that is more than negatively good — some 
real warmth of loyalty to righteousness ; and, in addition, 
something that is contagious about it. It is the characteris- 
tic that it may be caught by others which elevates it from a 
merely personal quality to a teacher quality. Secondly, a 
gracious bearing, in full accord with such morals. A divorce 
of manners from morals is bad for both. Thirdly, a living 
intellect. To be such it must be active and must live on 
substantial food. Fourthly, the disposition to communicate 
and some aptitude for such communication. Fifthly, a 
readiness to improve and to co-operate with others iu mak- 
ing improvement, which is what we understand by profes- 
sional spirit. 

Some of this must be got by birth or not at all. For such 
portion, training colleges are in no way responsible. Then 
there is a great deal to be done by way of improving natural 
endowments on the peculiarly personal side ; but we only 
make ourselves tedious when we draw up for prospective 
teachers classified lists of moral virtues and their contrary 
vices. Better, so far as these things are concerned, encour- 
age that self-respect which acts frankly its own part, and 
that respect for excellence which renders one responsive to 
good example. 

We get down to the serious business of training in that 
which remains, and difficult questions here present them- 
selves. Teaching is an art, and we shall disappoint the ex- 
pectations we raise if we undertake to teach it wholly as 
applied science. But it is an art which is steadily drawing 



TEE OUTLOOK 445 

nearer to the related sciences. At present it is more scien- 
tific than oratory, less scientific than medicine. It must 
then be mastered as an art, and as very intimately bound up 
with those personal qualities which it is so difficult to treat 
of apart from mere subjective sentiment. What sort of in- 
struction is available here, if instructor and student would 
both maintain a proper self-respect ? 

For one thing, the faithful observation of good teaching 
done by others, as in the German Prohejahr. A difficult 
thing this is to manage. It repays effort, however, if it 
awakens the conviction that one can learn from the best 
that is going on near at hand. 

" Here work enough to watch 
The Master work, and catch 
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play." 

Then practice teaching under guidance. Not enough of 
this to master the process, however. Such training sets and 
stiffens like a mould. But enough to enable the beginner 
to avoid waste of time and of child-material — costly stuff 
— in finding his own best way of doing his own work ; 
enough, too, to discover and cast out the cases of born 
incompetence. 

If the sciences do not yet dominate this art of teaching, 
as they already dominate the art of medicine, they are 
having more and more to do with it, especially the sciences 
of human development. Enough of this our prospective 
teacher should get to face him hopefully toward the scien- 
tific side of things, in confidence that more and more defi- 
nite guidance in his art will come from that direction. 
Enough of the philosophy and history of education, too, to 
help him understand that education is a progressive aspect 
of human society, to put him in the attitude of co-opera- 
tion with fellow schoolmen in furthering that progress. 
Finally, emphasis must be laid, all the time, on soundness of 
scholarship. The colleges that train our secondary-school 
teachers should give forth no uncertain sound in their re- 



446 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

quirement of scholarly excellence. Otherwise they will be 
likely to fail in the whole of their undertaking. Even the 
morality of their students — the real if not the conventional 
morality — will be uncertain if their scholarly standards 
are low. 

We may be modest in making claims with regard to the 
professional training toward which the teaching craft of our 
secondary schools is tending. But many signs show that 
the tendency is well under way ; and with all of its present 
imperfections, the training offered is working gradually 
toward stability, solidity, and effectiveness. 

Yet, after all is said, the discovery of teachers is as 
important as the making of teachers. The fact that so 
much of the real teacher-quality is inborn gives emphasis 
to this view. In part this discovery of teachers is the work 
of colleges and training schools. In part it is the work of 
superintendents and principals, and they should be highly 
trained and competent men themselves that they may dis- 
charge this duty intelligently. But in a larger sense the 
discovery is a result of a favorable organization of the whole 
set of conditions and associations which surround the 
teacher's calling. We look for real life, and life at its 
soundest and best, in these secondary schools. To have it, 
it is necessary that young men and women who represent 
our American life at its soundest and best, shall be drawn 
into teaching positions in these schools, and that those who 
show special aptitude for such work shall find good induce- 
ments to stay in it. Such inducements are the opportunity 
to do their work to good advantage, reasonably good salaries, 
and such social standing as will encourage self-respect on 
their part and on the part of their families. It is plain 
that these inducements are to be provided in part by the 
action of school trustees and boards of education and in 
part by the general attitude of the communities back of 
those boards. The real discoverer is the community, acting 
under such leadership as it may choose. 

But there are other agencies at work. Whatever is done 



THE OUTLOOK 447 

to render education more professional tends to draw toward 
it men who have professional tastes. In this point of view, 
the teaching body is the discoverer. Excellence in the pro- 
fession tends to attract and discover excellence. Every 
advance in the scientific, historical, or philosophical treat- 
ment of education tends to draw to it persons of intellectual 
taste and ability. In recent years we have seen men turn- 
ing to education because of the marked improvement of our 
pedagogical literature. Then, the knitting together of the 
interests of our secondary schools and universities works in 
the same direction. In some parts of the country the 
teacher in a high school finds himself, in a way, brought 
into the life of the universities. The influence of such a 
relation is not to be disregarded. 

Yet the chief responsibility comes back to boards of con- 
trol and the communities to which the teachers minister. 
We cannot urge too strongly upon them the necessity that 
they discover superior teachers for their secondary schools, 
by making the teaching positions in those schools such as 
superior men can accept and hold without loss of self-respect. 
Within the past few years we have repeatedly seen first- 
class men throwing up high-school positions in disgust at 
the petty politics with which those positions were beset, or 
in despair of being able to provide for their families with 
the salaries which those positions offered. Such a state of 
affairs is deadening. 

It is difficult to say conclusively whether the general 
movement of the time is forward or backward in these 
particulars ; but we have reason to believe that on the whole 
we are improving. There are many indications that the 
standard of preparation for secondary-school positions is 
rapidly advancing. Partly as cause and partly as effect of 
this change, the general standing of secondary- school teach- 
ers in the community seems to be rising. A rapid increase 
in the number of college graduates seeking high school posi- 
tions may prevent salaries from rising proportionately with 
other forms of public recognition, but we need not fear the 
ultimate outcome of this condition. 



448 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Within the universities there is observable a growing 
sentiment in favor of requiring a minimum amount of 
graduate work of students who are to be recommended as 
teachers in secondary schools. It has been suggested that 
this may lead in time to the recognition of the master's 
degree as the standard teaching degree. For many reasons 
this proposal seems worthy of serious consideration. 

Speaking broadly, the doctrine that the school is real life 
may be expected to work to the advantage of teachers and 
teaching. It puts the school into closer touch with the 
home, and carries into the school the better standards of 
the community. The growth of wealth and the sharpening 
of social distinctions may in some measure negative this 
tendency ; but in other ways it will be reinforced by 
those very conditions. It is not too much to expect that 
the new century will see a new generation of great school- 
men. If there has been no Thomas Arnold nor Edward 
Thring in our American schools, we have had many excellent 
teachers from Ezekiel Cheever down. Let our best men * 
find encouragement and recognition, both public and fra- 
ternal, awaiting them within the teaching profession, as 
other men have found in other professions ; and our teachers 
of world-greatness will in due time appear. 

3. Some comparison of the tendencies of public and 
private education should be made ; or, taking the two more 
characteristic forms, let us consider the public high school 
— a day school — on the one hand, and the private boarding 
school on the other. 

The students in the high school are in daily touch with 
the home life and the general life of the community. ~ In 
the boarding school the school life is for the time being the 
whole of life for the students. The disposition to regard 
school life as real life may be expected, then, to affect iu 
different ways these two types of institution. 

The high school is in some respects more in danger of 
isolation — of separation from the real life of its students — 
than schools of the other sort. It is possible for students 



THE OUTLOOK 449 

to have a whole range of interests belonging to the hours 
not spent in school, and even to think of school interests as 
relatively unimportant. What more frequently happens is 
that the outside interests mix in a great variety of ways with 
those of the school, with a result that is confusing in the 
extreme. 

There is a strongly marked tendency in American com- 
munities to permit young people, while yet in the high 
school, to forestall the social pleasures which a more whole- 
some taste would reserve for later enjoyment. The aping of 
college society on the part of high-school students adds to 
this evil. The distractions referred to are for the most part 
innocent enough in themselves. But they detract from the 
seriousness of our secondary education, and tend to a certain 
pettiness of scholastic attainment. 

The students in German day schools are almost as com- 
pletely removed from the outer world in their hours out 
of school as if they lived within school walls ; for the school 
authorities can do much toward regulating the home life in 
the interest of studies. Our American disposition is against 
this sort of regulation, and we must seek an American 
solution of the difficulty. 

We have wished to see more of real life in the school, 
and here we find real life jostling the school in a way that 
is very embarrassing. The trouble is, however, that the 
school may be jostled by life without being in touch with 
life. The first thing, apparently, to be done by way of 
counteracting this tendency to distraction is to make the 
instruction in the school more vital — to bring it, in other 
words, into closer touch with the rest of life. The remark 
is very general, but this is not the place to enter into detail. 
And there are teachers who are translating the general 
principle into daily actuality, and making the things of the 
school more alive for their students than those interests 
that would attract them abroad. First, then, the instruction 
in the schools must have more of that living touch with 
reality. Then the public must be led to a better under- 

29 



450 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

standing of the place and need of the school. For this diffi- 
culty cannot be fully dealt with by dealing with individuals : 
it is a public matter and calls for a change of public senti- 
ment. If the people are persuaded that the school is doing 
work of superior excellence and of immediate significance 
for real life, it will be able to make its way and accomplish 
its purpose even in one of our comfortable and happy com- 
munities where parents obey their children faithfully. 

One thing should be added here : " We are coming to 
understand that the various school societies, literary, musi- 
cal, athletic, and the like, represent something that belongs to 
education, because it belongs to the real life of the pupil in 
the school. We cannot longer treat these things as mere 
incidents or accidents. The emphasis may be misplaced in 
many ways in dealing with them, but their integral con- 
nection with the other employments of the school must now 
be recognized. 

Keferring to the other type of school, we observe that 
private boarding schools seem divided between two ideals — 
that of the home and that of the college. All such schools 
must unavoidably be influenced by both of these ideals, 
though in varying degrees. In general they seem to be 
tending toward the increase of student responsibility for 
student conduct. Here, too, many things which were once 
regarded as side occupations — mere time-filling and play — 
are now seen to be vital to the educational function of the 
school. As regards athletics, we seem to have taken lessons 
from the English, who have long recognized the rightful 
interest of the school in the various schoolboy sports. It is 
significant that continental educators, too, are looking to 
England in this matter. It may be that football will sup- 
plant studies in English at the centre of the school curricu- 
lum, as English has already supplanted Latin ! That is 
hardly to be expected ; but the teacher who is hunting for 
the real boy to teach makes no mistake in the conclusion 
that a large part of him is on the field engaged in some vigor- 
ous game. 



THE OUTLOOK 451 

Private schools are sometimes organized for the avowed 
purpose of making experiment, and that usually along the 
line of some specific educational reform. Much good service 
has been done by the pioneer work of such schools. But 
by far the greater number of private schools are notably 
conservative, preferring to follow good precedent and good 
leadership. It is to be hoped that with the gradual relaxa- 
tion of close prescription in college-entrance requirements, 
academies, and other privately managed institutions will 
undertake a wider range of judicious experimentation, and 
so lead the way to improvements in education in which the 
high schools may be able to follow them. 

The possibility of giving special attention to individual 
needs is one of the chief advantages enjoyed in private insti- 
tutions ; and there is, perhaps, no particular in which they 
can do the whole world of education a greater service than 
in marking out. the most effective methods of individual 
treatment. Many forms of individual need depend on physi- 
cal and mental conditions which may be described as patho- 
logical. It is in such cases especially that education should 
add to its tact, science. By extending the application of 
scientific knowledge to such cases, private schools may point 
the way which public schools will eventually follow. 

There are many signs of growing interest in religious 
education. The Eoman Catholic Church, after many years 
of effort in the building up of primary schools on the one 
hand and colleges and universities on the other, is now turn- 
ing its attention to the establishment of high schools. It is 
not at all unlikely that a marked increase in such schools 
may be seen in the near future. Other religious denomina- 
tions, too, are showing much concern for the establishment 
of schools for education of a secondary grade. Of course, 
the religious motive is dominant in this movement. 

But the studies of the past decade in the psychology 
of adolescence have emphasized the significance of religious 
forces in the stage of development with which all secondary 
education has to do. It is to be expected that many high- 



452 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

school students will pass through times of great religious 
unrest which will have an important bearing upon their 
whole intellectual and moral development. The attitude of 
secondary-school teachers toward such facts will undoubtedly 
command a large measure of attention in the years that are 
just before us. 

As the nature of the storm and stress period of youth 
comes to be better understood, the extreme delicacy of the 
problem of religious instruction in this period becomes more 
evident. Teachers in strictly denominational schools dis- 
cover that their task is not so simple as the mere setting- 
forth of the doctrines they desire to inculcate. The formal 
acceptance of doctrines is found to count for little in real 
life, and particularly at this stage of life ; while personal 
convictions are all-powerful. The teacher, accordingly, in a 
religious academy learns to be patient with callow skepti- 
cism and to let it run its course. He learns to let the 
young skeptic take devious paths of speculation, that he 
may approach the faith in his own way and arrive at settled 
confidence in his own time. Such a teacher is not inactive, 
to be sure, but puts in a timely word of caution, information, 
and sympathetic guidance ; persuading the learner, when 
the occasion is opportune, that his new-recruited wisdom 
will become more wise when it falls into line with the best 
wisdom of his fellowmen, and steps out to music that has 
sounded the march of centuries. 

The conscientious and scientific-minded teacher in the 
public high school cannot be unmindful of the fact that 
those under his instruction have the same sort of develop- 
ment to go through as those in private and church schools, 
and that at times the real life they are living from day to 
day is centred as much in their rising religious and philo- 
sophic doubt and aspiration as in their athletic or social 
interests. And he is at liberty to help them as the teacher 
in the private school helps his students, except in the one 
point of the doctrinal content of the religious consciousness. 
To some, this exception seems to cover everything of capital 



THE OUTLOOK 453 

importance. To others, it seems to relate to an altogether 
subordinate matter, or a matter that may better be treated 
apart from the ordinary school instruction, in a separate 
institution. It is well that free play is allowed under our 
system for the satisfaction of a wide range of tastes and con- 
victions in this matter. A governmental monopoly is not desir- >s. 
able in any stage of our educational system ; perhaps least of 
all at the secondary stage. The public schools must be non- 
sectarian for generations to come — probably as long as 
religious denominations shall exist. And we make no mis- 
take when we regard such schools as constituting one of the 
crowning glories of our national life, and a strong support of 
much that is best in our American civilization. But private 
and denominational schools should be welcomed too, and 
recognized as having a work of their own to do — as sup- 
plementing the noble scheme of education under public 
management, which has been found so well suited to the 
general needs of our people. 

We may hope, too, that fraternal relations between teachers 
of public and private schools will be more generally cultivated 
in the future than they have been in the past. Each of 
these great bodies of teachers needs the help of the other to 
stir it up in the way of making its instruction more thor- 
oughly educational, which means more true to life. In the 
religious aspect of secondary instruction the teachers in 
schools of either type are working under limitation, but 
under limitation of different kinds. Subject always to such 
limitation, faithfully observed, all are responsible for helping 
their students past the danger of permanent skepticism, of 
mere absence of confidence and conviction ; and toward such 
faith as shall give to each his best hold on hope and love 
and righteousness. 

So we may say in general : The demand that is growing 
into some sort of dominance in the concerns of private 
schools and public schools alike, is the demand that instruc- 
tion shall strike the note of reality ; that it shall find the 
real pupil and give him instruction that he can lay hold of 



454 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

without pretence and without precocity. Eed blood is going 
to school, and the school is interested in things that send 
red blood bounding to young muscles and young brains 

And what will be the result to American scholarship ? 
Perhaps it will be this : That teachers who also have red 
blood will make more insistent demand for real scholarship, 
and will get what they demand. The need of improvement 
at this point is urgent and should not be discounted. But 
one word should be added : We must be willing to stop short 
of the highest possible scholarship in our American schools, 
if that last finish of scholarly excellence cost never so little 
of the real vigor of American life. The life is more than 
learning. 

We have been considering thus far the secondary school 
in the light of the doctrine that the school is life. Some of 
the most significant and far-reaching consequences of that 
doctrine have not been touched ; but we hasten on to another 
view, which has been foreshadowed, and is not altogether an- 
other. Our adolescent student is continually reaching out 
after larger conceptions of duty and opportunity. With him, 
one wave of subjective egoism is succeeded by a wave of 
devotion to larger human interests. He may be as much an 
egoist as ever when he contemplates the glory of self-sacri- 
fice for the good of one's fellowmen, but his egoism is then 
finding its own corrective. In like manner we turn now to 
the broad question of the relation of secondary education to 
public interests, but with no sense of breaking with the 
doctrine we have been considering. 

One of the most notable of recent writers on secondary 
education is the French sociologist and philosopher, M. 
Alfred Fouill^e. Within the past three years he has made 
important contributions to the current discussion of the 
reform of secondary education in France. But his general 
position was set forth with great clearness, ten or twelve 
years ago, in his book entitled Education from a oiational 
standpoint. This work deals with the schools of France. 



THE OUTLOOK 455 

We need a full discussion of American education from a 
national standpoint, or rather from the public standpoint, 
which includes the national. Doubtless some one will give 
us such a work in due time. But in these last pages let us 
glance briefly at some current tendencies as seen from the 
standpoint of public interests. 

The spirit of democracy is abroad in modern societies, 
whatever their form of government. Eightly understood, it 
is one of the choicest possessions of our modern civilization. 
So one of the most searching tests of any educational ten- 
dency is its bearing upon essential democracy. 

By essential democracy we may understand the spirit 
which values men according to their manhood. It is the 
spirit which judges of men on the ground of inherent worth, 
and not on the ground of such fortuitous attributes as birth 
or wealth or mere reputation. Democracy surely recognizes 
differences among men. It sees that some must lead and 
some must follow. Its peculiarity is that it seeks by all 
means to devolve leadership on him who is fittest to lead. 

More than this, true democracy recognizes in men a diver- 
sity of gifts, such that each man is destined to lead in some 
things and to follow in others, to lead in some relations in life 
and to follow in other relations. That is, to lead wisely and to 
follow wisely are the correlated duties of every man in a 
democratic society. Democracy in the long run puts the 
highest price on pre-eminence in each of the several walks of 
life. It puts a price on pre-eminence of every sort, and 
teaches every man to respect the different capacities of other 
men. The question, then, to put to our institutions of second- 
ary education is this : Do they help every student to find 
himself and h"is fellowmen ? For a portion of its students, 
secondary education may share this responsibility with the 
education of the higher schools. But the responsibility falls 
upon the secondary school in a peculiar way, for the reason 
that this grade of instruction deals with a stage of develop- 
ment in which the student is for the first time, as it were, 
in possession of his complete equipment of instincts, powers, 



456 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

and passions, and is, accordingly, for the first time fairly face 
to face with his destiny. 

1. Now let us attempt to trace some bearings of this view 
upon current tendencies in our secondary education. In the 
first place, what are secondary schools doing, and what can 
they do, to maintain and advance the spirit of true democ- 
racy ? I do not see that this question has much to do with 
the question of social " sets " and all that sort of thing. It 
is rather a question whether the youth in our schools are 
learning to value human worth for what it is, and not for 
what it has, and are learning that they are responsible, eacli 
for a social service peculiarly his own. Diversity of educa- 
tion is not necessarily a bar to such instruction ; but every 
sort of educational snobbishness is its deadly enemy. 

In the main, we may safely assume that public high 
schools are democratic in tone, and serve to reinforce the 
democratic spirit in our society. But we must not carry 
this assumption too far. There is need, even in public 
schools, to guard against the subtle danger of valuing men 
for something other than what they are. It would be a 
very great mistake, too, to assume that the tendency of 
private schools is mainly or even largely undemocratic. It 
would not appear that such is the case. A large and well- 
established boarding school certainly has a democracy of its 
own, which imposes a wholesome check on some forms of 
exclusiveness. 

There is constant need, however, to guard in private 
schools, and in all schools for that matter, against the danger 
of artificial standards. Especially do the teachers of private 
schools which have a reputation for exclusiveness need to 
guard their students against this danger. There can be no 
doubt that many such teachers are faithful to a high degree 
in this matter. And the reward of their faithfulness is 
this : The knowledge that they are not only promoting the 
moral uplift of their own students, but are also serving 
important public ends. I believe there are families whose 
only hope of getting a breath of real American democratic 



i 
THE OUTLOOK 467 

air is in the training the youth of those families get in 
schools that educate. 

2. M. Fouillee, in the work referred to, contended that 
the " selection of superiorities " is one chief form of service 
which the school must render the state. The saying may 
be accepted with all heartiness. Just because democracy 
is so easily perverted into a system of " levelling down/' the 
schools need by all means to keep faith with its true spirit, 
and seek for latent leadership as for hid treasure. As our 
schools grow in numbers, it becomes increasingly difficult to 
give special stimulus to those of more than ordinary endow- 
ment, that they may make the most of the gift that is in 
them. The chief gain that we are making in this respect is 
not seen in any improvement in system, but rather in the 
more general employment in the schools of teachers of 
thorough preparation, who are capable of making their in- 
struction generally stimulating. 

But democracy does more than demand that the schools 
shall find and develop natural leaders. It demands that 
the schools shall find and develop in each pupil his peculiar 
side of leadership. This is even more difficult than the 
other. Here, again, the growth of our schools is a hindrance 
to their efficiency. Here comes in new emphasis on the 
responsibility of the principals of schools. Here, too, we 
find some of the good effects of the movement toward the 
freer election of studies. It has been suggested that the 
middle-school course be so arranged that at the close of 
each two-year period the student shall be allowed to make 
a new election, but that within this period his course shall 
be relatively unchangeable. There seems to be wisdom in 
this recommendation. It amounts to this, that at a given 
time a two-year course be mapped out in accordance with 
the best knowledge then available as to the student's quality 
and capability, that he be kept at this course long enough 
to show whether the choice was a good one for him or not, 
and that at the end of this period choice be made for the 
ensuing two years in the light of the experience of the past. 



458 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

This would make the course of training a continued trial of 
the student's quality with a view to finding his best. And 
that, indeed, is what every secondary course should be. By 
some such means we might save many misfits in life, with- 
out running into those endless term-to-term readjustments 
which only render a course of instruction jerky and gener- 
ally hysterical. It is something like this that the Germans 
are trying to do under the Frankfort plan, but that plan 
provides for three-year periods instead of two. The fact 
that this tendency is international emphasizes its importance. 
It is, in truth, the current form of the demand that sec- 
ondary education shall help the student to find himself. 
The demand has come from the psychological side of educa- 
tion. It comes now from the national side. 

Such a system as this could be made much more effective 
in a six-year or an eight-year high school than in our four- 
year schools. The tendency toward an extension of the 
secondary course upward and downward can barely be 
referred to here. It is as yet more a tendency of thought 
than of practice. Yet we see some signs of its finding its 
way down to the ground. It is not unlikely that we shall 
have, side by side with our present system, numerous ex- 
periments with secondary schools which take in the last 
year or two of the present elementary course, and with the 
same or other schools so organized as to cover the first two 
years of the present college course. It is very desirable 
that such experiments be made. In the making of such 
experiments, it would seem possible for private schools to 
render one more important service to our secondary educa- 
tion. And we can be content to let the matter work itself 
out under the wisdom taught by experience. 

But there is another tendency of large significance, which 
has to do with the effort to find for every citizen his place 
of most effective service. That is the movement which is 
giving us vocational schools of secondary grade. 

We seem to be coming to a more general and insistent 
demand that men shall have training for their work in life. 



THE OUTLOOK 459 

Since the breaking down of the old order of trade gilds and 
apprenticeship, the need of regular training has long been 
obscured. There is an American notion of long standing 
which has added to this obscurity — the notion that special 
training for any particular service is a reflection on the 
brightness of the person trained. If he had gumption, he 
would be able to do his work without having to learn how 
to do it. This does not seem to have been the colonial 
view, but it grew up rather in the earlier part of the nine- 
teenth century. This crude conceit is now passing away. 
Training of the highest sort is provided in the professions, 
particularly in medicine. Teaching still lags in this respect, 
but is trying to catch up. The several forms of engineering 
are already firmly placed on the platform of technical train- 
ing. As regards the trades, progress has been slow, but 
progress has surely been making. The idea of specific train- 
ing has reappeared, but in a different world from that of the 
trade gilds with their system of apprenticeship. It is a world 
of schools. When this age undertakes to rebuild the old 
mediaeval conception that each man shall be master of his 
own craft, it will do it through a system of trade schools. 
In fact, this seems to be what we are coming to — a view of 
public education which plans to make the schooling of every 
pupil culminate in training for some occupation in life. We 
shall say to our youth : " You have left school before school 
is out if you have not begun to learn in school to do your 
daily work." 

Vocational training is to be postponed as long as possible. 
It is to rest upon the most extended general schooling which 
the individual can get. And each of these types of educa- 
tion is to shade off into the other ; each is to reinforce the 
other. The ideal of useful occupation will ennoble the more 
general instruction of the lower schools, and the ideals of 
liberal education will ennoble the school of trades. The 
future artisan will be encouraged to be as much of an artist 
as he can be. All this may seem but a dream. And some 
of it may be only what Ruskin or William Morris dreamed 



460 



THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



quite half a century ago. Yet it may not be the worse for 
that, and in any case it may stand till something better is 
proposed.^ 

The movement toward vocational training, however it 
may be organized, is already upon us, and it seems reason- 
able to believe that the enormous expansion of high-school 
attendance in this country of late, with the attendant effort 
of the schools to meet the needs of all, is in part a gathering 
up of the forces of our American youth preparatory to a 
more general mastery of the daily business of life. How 
far the specific training for distinct occupations should be 
given in schools under public control is, however, a ques- 
tion unsettled as yet. The full co-operation of schools of 
many sorts will be needed : of that we may be sure. The 



1 The national system of education here contemplated may be roughly in- 
dicated by the following diagram, in which the upright central trunk repre- 
, sents provision for general culture, " training for citizen- 

ship," or whatever such education of a universal sort 
may be called ; while the bi'anches represent specific 
training for some occupation in life. The part x a of 
this tree of knowledge may stand for the training of the 
home and kindergarten, up to about the age of six : the 
part a b, for the elementary school, six or eight years in 
length. The lowest grade of vocational training ought 
surely not to begin till a good elementary education of a 
general sort has been secured. But after that many 
pupils can continue their schooling only long enough to 
make some start toward an occupation in life in some 
trade school, as &/or b g. The courses in these schools 
will be of varying length. But this scheme proposes as 
the standard mmimum for those whose school life must 
be brief, the whole elementary course, a b, and a substan- 
tial extension, two years at least in length, along one of 
the lines of vocational training branching off at the 
point b. 

The part b c will represent the general culture of the 
secondary school, which, under various arrangements, 
may be four, six, or even eight years in length. In a highly developed system, 
probably the close of each two-year period in this course would become a node 
from which vocational schools of various sorts would arise. In the diagram, 
such schools, c h, c i, are represented as branching off from the end of the 
secondary-school period. In our present educational organization, the higher 




THE OUTLOOK 461 

growth of secondary schools of a technical and commercial 
sort is, in fact, bringing with it a whole new set of problems. 
We cannot consider them here. Within the next few years 
the discussion of them will very likely fill a large place in 
our educational literature. 

Three principles which have been roughly blocked out 
in this chapter may now be recapitulated side by side : 
First, the general culture of secondary grade which is needed 
for life, is practically identical with that which best fits for 
the higher education. Secondly, the colleges will serve the 
real interests of higher education by such entrance tests 
and requirements as will best promote the general, educa- 
tional efficiency of the secondary schools. Thirdly, the 
schooling of each individual should be carried as far on the 
lines of general culture as his circumstances will permit ■ — ■ 
but in any normal case to the end of the elementary-school 
course, and in no case to the extreme of lifelong dilettante- 
ism ; — and should then be rounded out with specific prep- 
aration for some worthy occupation in life. I take it that 
these are principles which will influence our secondary edu- 
cation within the next few years. No one of them can be 
accepted as a finality. They are working hypotheses, sub- 
ject to correction as we go along. 

3. Our secondary education, then, is meeting a public 

schools of technology ; the technical colleges of our universities ; such schools 
of the learned {jrofessions as require no further preparatory study than that 
oifered by the high schools ; and our better normal schools, which also rest 
upon the high-school course, are all represented by these slanting lines, c h 
and c i. 

The part c d will stand for the " culture courses " of the college or univer- 
sity, ordinarily four years in length, which maj"^ in time be shortened. Tlie 
slanting lines, d j, d k, will then represent graduate professional schools, like 
the present medical courses of Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities ; and 
d e may stand for the graduate studies leading to the doctorate in Philosophy. 
The distinction between technical and cultural studies, at no point absolute, 
becomes more obscured in the higher stages of education, where the studies of 
the central trunk become more and more specialised, and in the end are them- 
selves, in a way, professional. The diagram disregards this fact, and calls 
attention particularly to the relation of vocational to general training in the 
organization of schools, and in the course of education of each individual. 



462 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

need in the promotion of real democracy, and in helping 
individuals to find their field of most effective service. In 
the third place it is meeting a public need in the largest 
sense by promoting a wholesome civic spirit. Those who 
are experimenting with schemes of self-government in high 
schools are aiming, among other things, to create an intelli- 
gent interest in municipal affairs. The study of American 
history and civil government is taking a larger place in the 
high-school curriculum. The neglect of these subjects in 
the past has been one of the most striking anomalies in our 
courses of instruction. American literature is also receiving 
ample attention in both elementary and secondary schools. 

The emphasis thus laid on the national spirit in our 
schools is not peculiar to this country. It is characteristic 
of our time. The tendency which it represents calls for 
strong approval. I trust I shall not be misunderstood when 
I add that local or even national spirit cannot be regarded 
as the final and absolute end of our education. We are 
living in an age when nationality is seen as the ultimate 
object of patriotism. But that age is passing. The strenu- 
ous effort of the German emperor to make the German 
Gymnasium more intensely national is only one indication 
of this fact. It can hardly be doubted that we are moving 
toward a time when our country will be the world, and 
patriotism will mean devotion to the interests of mankind. 
The growing importance of international law, the advance 
of international co-operation, the gradual unification of the 
ideals of civilization, and a hundred other indications point 
in this direction. 

It is no Utopian view that is here presented. The progress 
referred to is slow; but it has been mightily accelerated 
within the memory of living men. The time to live and 
die for one's country is not past; it will not pass in our 
day; but just as surely as in times gone by the voice of 
patriotism has called men to fight for their nation as opposed 
to a rebellious section, just so surely a time will come when 
the voice of patriotism will call men to fight for humanity 



THE OUTLOOK 463 

as opposed to any nation that rebels against the general 
interests of humanity. Our highest aspiration for our 
country is not that it shall overcome others — that it shall 
make itself the biggest nation among a crowd of envious 
lesser nations — but rather that it shall contribute most to 
the realization of that higher " federation of the world." 

So the tendency of our secondary education which will in 
the end promote the truest patriotism, is the tendency to 
look to the highest good of all mankind. This is only 
another way of saying that as our schools grow more 
national they should also grow more truly humanistic. 
The older humanism was devotion to an ideal, to be sure, 
but an abstract ideal. The newer humanism of the schools 
cannot well dispense with the best that the older humanism 
had to offer. But it will cease to be abstract. It will call 
forth a spirit of devotion, not to an ideal republic of the 
past, but to the commonwealth of the present and the 
greater commonwealth of the future. 

The youth in our secondary schools are ready to be swayed 
toward either intense selfishness or the most generous self- 
devotion. The best that the schools can do to guard them 
against self-centred commercialism, is to awaken their en- 
thusiasm for some ideal good, which has power of appeal to 
the imagination. Literature and history can make such 
appeal, by awakening the sentiment of patriotism. And 
they will make this appeal at its best when they give our 
youth some glimpses of the larger patriotism, of the universal 
good, which we hope to see our country serving in the days 
that are to come, as no nation has served it since the nations 
began to be. 

So we may look to see humanism as dominant in the 
schools of the twentieth century as it was in those of the 
sixteenth ; but a new humanism, leaning more and more on 
science, mindful of the past, patriotic in the present, and 
looking hopefully forward to the larger human interests 
that have already begun to be. 

But the subject is a large one, and many aspects of it 



464 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

whicli will appear to some of paramount importance, must 
be passed without discussion or even without mention. 
Stress has been laid on some of the chief tendencies, already 
observable, which offer good hope for the future. Broadly 
speaking, the dominant movements may be seen in the 
effort to put life, real life, fulness of life, into the school ; 
and in the effort to make the school minister in the largest 
sense to the public good. These efforts tend, for one thing, 
toward greater flexibility in our courses of study, but also 
toward something more than flexibility. Our boys and 
girls belong to the highest form of life, and it is a vertebrate 
course of study that they require. 

These efforts tend to emphasize the importance of making 
and discovering real teachers. President Benjamin Ide 
Wheeler has said, "I am convinced that teachers are not 
exclusively born." We have only to add that teachers, both 
born and made, must needs be discovered. 

They tend further toward co-operation and division of 
labor between public and private secondary schools, in 
meeting somewhat of the religious need of adolescents ; and 
in promoting that sort of democracy which knows that 

" A mau 's a man for a' that." 

They tend toward the practical recognition of the doctrine, 
to every man his work and preparation to do his work. 

They tend toward nationalism which is not so much the 
nationalism of " My country, right or wrong," as the national- 
ism of " My country for the enlightenment of the world." 

The consideration of tendencies in secondary education 
just now brings us near to the very heart of our civilization. 
For the past ten or twelve years we have seen middle- 
school problems occupying a central place in the thought of 
the great culture nations. We have had a decade or more of 
middle-school reforms. The great milestones in the prog- 
ress of these reforms have been the December Conference at 
Berlin in 1890, and the revision of the Prussian curriculums 
which followed ; the report of our own Committee of Ten in 



THE OUTLOOK 465 

1893 ; the report of the English Parliamentary Commission 
on Secondary Education in 1895, and the establishment of 
the English Board of Education to give effect to recommen- 
dations which this commission presented ; the report of 
the Committee on College-Entrance Requirements, of our 
National Educational Association in 1899 ; the report, in 
1899 and 1900, of the commission appointed by the French 
Chamber of Deputies ; the Brunswick Declaration and the 
Kiel decree, of 1900; the establishment of the College En- 
trance Examination Board and the Commission on Accred- 
ited Schools in the year just past. It is a most remarkable 
record, and warrants the belief that we have just been pass- 
ing through one of the greatest formative epochs in the 
history of secondary schools. Tn America it has been, not 
a time of crisis, as in the nations of Europe, but rather a 
time of unparalleled progress. In 1889-90 less than three- 
fifths of one per cent of our population was enrolled in 
our secondary schools ; in 1899-1900 nineteen-twentieths 
of one per cent was so enrolled, and in eighteen states 
this proportion was more than one per cent. If the figures 
at hand are correct, this is by far the largest proportion of 
any great people to be found pursuing studies of this grade, 
Prussia showing a little less than one-half of one per cent 
and France a trifle less than Prussia. 

It is the public high schools that have done it. While 
the percentage of the population in private schools increased 
in the decade from 0.23 to 0.25, the percentage in the high 
schools increased in the same period from 0.36 to 0.70. It 
is evident that the high school has come to be an immensely 
significant factor in our American life : raising our standard 
of living ; giving currency to higher ideas and ideals ; sending 
great numbers of our young people on to the universities and 
so accentuating in our age the character of a university age ; 
increasing the range of selection in all occupations calling 
for the intermediate and higher grades of intelligence ; and 
forcing the wider differentiation of our curriculums by the 
very immensity and variety of the demands for instruction 
which must be satisfied. 

30 



466 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

It becomes in an important sense the mission of our 
secondary schools to help our people of all social and indus- 
trial grades and classes to understand one another, for 
they help the schools of all kinds and grades to understand 
one another. Especially is this true of the public high 
school, which lays its hand directly upon both the primary 
school and the university. 

It is a great thing, this promoting of a good understand- 
ing between all classes of our citizens. There will be times 
of crisis when it will be a paramount concern in our national 
life. We can view with patience even the bungling work 
occasionally done by politically minded school boards in 
dealing with our high schools, when we realize that in just 
this way our demos, of which we are all a part, is working 
toward an understanding of an institution which in many 
lands the demos neither tries nor cares to understand. Even 
through temporary mismanagement of our higher educa- 
tional institutions our people are coming to understand one 
another, and through better management they are coming 
to a better understanding. 

It takes wisdom and patience and poise and unbounded 
good-will to discharge the responsibilities of an intermediary 
position such as is occupied by our middle schools. But 
if such graces shall abound in the teachers and managers 
of the schools, these will deserve well of their country ; 
and even though we are a democracy, we shall not be wholly 
ungrateful. 



APPENDIX A 

STATISTICS OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

(From the Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 
1899-1900.) 

The total number of secondary students in institutions of all 
classes reporting to this Office for the scholastic year ending June, 
1900, was 719,241, or more than 4 per cent of the aggregate enroll- 
ment in all the schools and colleges of the United States which was 
17,020,710. There was a gain of 64,014, or nearly 10 per cent, 
over the preceding year in the number of secondary students 
enrolled. The secondary students enumerated were distributed 
among eight classes of institutions as follows : 



Institutions. 



Male. 


Female. 


216,207 


303,044 


1,049 


1,906 


6,132 


2,087 


55,7.34 


55,063 


3,817 


2,798 


28,682 


19,384 




13,817 


5,588 


3,933 


317,209 


402,032 



Total. 



Public high schools .... 
Public normal schools . . . 
Public universities and colleges 
Private high schools .... 
Private normal schools . . . 
Private universities and colleges 
Private colleges for women . . 
Manual training schools . . . 

Total 



519,251 

2,955 

8,219 

110,797 

6,615 

48,066 

13,817 

9,521 

719,241 



The enrollment of secondary students for the year 1899-1900 
was almost 1 per cent of the total population, or 9,460 in every 
million of population. The number reported as enrolled is some- 
thing less than the actual number of sec6ndary students in the 
United States. In localities in most of the States where high 
schools are not accessible there are many students pursuing sec- 



468 



THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



ondary studies under the direction of teachers of the elementary 
schools. The 91,549 students in commercial schools are not here 
included. 

Since 1890 the rate of increase of secondary students has been 
more rapid than the rate of increase in population. The number 
of secondary students in private institutions has about kept pace 
with the growth of population from year to year, while the num- 
ber of such students in public institutions has increased from 
about 3,600 to the million in 1890 to over 7,000 to the million in 
1900. The following table shows the remarkable growth in the 
number of secondary students in the past ten years : 

Secondary students and per cent of population. 











In public institu- 
tions. 


In private institu- 
tions. 


In both classes. 


Tear. 


Secondary 
students. 


Per cent 
of popu- 
lation. 


Secondary 
students. 


Per cent 
of popu- 
lation. 


Secondary 
students. 


Per cent 
of popu- 
lation. 


1889-90 . 
1890-91 . 
1891-92 . 
1892-93 . 
1893-94 . 
1894-95 . 
1895-96 . 
1896-97 . 
1897-98 . 
1898-99 . 
1899-1900 








221,522 
222,868 
247,660 
256,628 
302,006 
361,370 
392,729 
420,459 
459,813 
488,549 
530,425 


0.36 
.§5 
.38 
.39 
.45 
.53 
.56 
.59 
.63 
.66 
.70 


146,481 
147,567 
154,429 

153,792 
178,352 
178,342 
166,274 
164,446 
166,302 
166,678 
188,816 


0.23 
.23 
.24 
.23 
.26 
.26 
.23 
.23 
.23 
.23 
.25 


367,003 
370,435 
402,089 
410.420 
480,358 
539,712 
559,003 
584,904 
626,115 
665,227 
719,241 


0.59 
.58 
.62 
.62 
.71 
.79 
.79 
.82 
.86 
.89 
.95 



It has been found impracticable to collect complete statistics of 
secondary students in the preparatory departments of colleges and 
other institutions, such as the number of students pursuing certain 
studies, and certain other details. For this reason this chapter is 
devoted almost exclusively to the statistics of the 6,005 public high 
schools and the 1,978 private high schools, academies, and semi- 
naries reporting directly to this Bureau for the year 1899-1900. 
The following table shows the remarkable growth of public and 
private high schools since 1889-90 ; 



APPENDIX A 



469 



1 


"3 

1 

05 


OlO-^lOOCOOOrHioOOCO 


i 


16,329 
14,501 
10,657 
17,340 
20,129 
22,681 
24,452 
26,383 
27,298 
28,128 
30,489 


o 
o 

o 
CO 


lOOOOOC5'Tt<CiOOOOlOOD 




-a 


94,931 
98,400 
100,739 
102,375 
118,645 
118,347 
106,654 
107,633 
105,225 
103,838 
110,797 


h 
5 
g 
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o 

to 




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1 




202,963 
211,596 
239,556 
254,023 
289,274 
350,099 
380,493 
409,433 
449,000 
476,227 
519,251 


1 


9,120 
8,270 
9,564 
10,141 
12,120 
14,122 
15,700 
16,809 
17,941 
18,718 
20,372 


O 

m 


Oi-onoo-i'c^i -#05 10 1010 

c^t-cc-icoi-ic-OT-iaso 


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1889-90 
1890-91 
1891-92 
1892-93 
1893-94 
1894-95 
1895-96 
1896-97 
1897-98 
1898-99 
1899-1900 



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470 



THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



Denominational Schools. 

Of the 1,978 private secondary schools reported, 945 are con- 
trolled by religious denominations. In these denominational 
schools there were 5,074 instructors and 53,624 secondary stu- 
dents, as against 5,043 instructors and 57,173 students in the 
1,033 nonsectarian schools. In Table 43, which gives in detail 
the statistics of private secondary schools, the name of the re- 
ligious denomination controlling each school is given in column 
4. Tables 28 and 29 show the number of schools in each State 
controlled by each religious denomination. The following synop- 
sis is made from these tables : 



Religious denomination and nonsectarian. 



Nonsectarian 

Roman Catholic . . . . 

Episcopal 

Baptist 

Presbj'terian 

Methodist 

Friends 

Congregational 

Methodist Episcopal South 

Lutheran 

Other denominationB . . . 

Total 



Schools. 


Instruc- 
tors. 


1,033 


5,043 


361 


1,910 


98 


714 


96 


529 


93 


402 


65 


324 


55 


296 


51 


242 


38 


154 


32 


175 


56 


328 


1,978 


10,117 



Stu- 
dents. 



57,173 
15,872 
5,145 
7,173 
4,574 
5,522 
3,428 
2,671 
2,863 
2,032 
4,344 



110,797 



APPENDIX A 



471 



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THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 












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APPENDIX B 

KECENT SCHOOL CUERIGULUMS 



COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF 
THE BOROUGHS OF MANHATTAN AND THE 
BRONX, NEW YORK, 1901 

EXPLANATORY NOTES 

Drawing, one period a week the first and third years, and two 
periods a week the second and fourth years, is prescribed for pupils 
in the Commercial Course, and for those preparing for higher insti- 
tutions that require drawing for admission. It is optional for others. 

Music, one period a week, is prescribed for pupils who purpose 
to become teachers ; others may elect music or elocution. 

Physical training, two periods a week, is prescribed for all 
pupils ; but half the time allotted to physical training in the third 
and fourth years may be given to elocution. 

One of the periods in physics is to be given to exercises for 
which no special preparation has been made by the pupil. 

No new class in an elective subject shall be formed for less than 
forty (40) pupils in the first year, thirty (30) pupils in the second 
year, twenty-five (25) in the third year, and fifteen (15) in the 
fourth year. 

These courses of study may be modified, when necessary to meet 
the requirements for admission to higher institutions. 

"Whenever any pupil on account of ill health, or for any other 
sufficient reason, is unable to complete the prescribed work in the 
assigned time, the principal is authorized to arrange the subjects of 



474 



THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



study in any one of these courses in such a way that the require- 
ments may be completed in an additional year. 



I. — Classical. 

Tear. Periods a Week. 

I. Biology 3 

English 3 

History 3 

Latin 6 

Mathematics 4 

Physiology 1 

19 

II. English 3 

French or German (4) or 

Greek (5) 4 or 5 

History ....... 3 

Latin 5 

Mathematics 4 

19 or 20 

III. English 3 

French or German or 

Greek 4 

French or German begun 

(4) or Physics (5) 4 or 5 

Latin 5 

Mathematics . . . . • 4 

20 or 21 

IV. English 3 

French or German or 

Greek 4 

Latin 6 

Electives 8 

A modern language 
Advanced Mathematics 
Biology 
Chemistry 

Greek and Latin (ad- 
ditional) 
History 

20 

II. — College and Normal 
Preparatory. 

I. Biology 3 

English ....... 3 



Year. Periods a Week. 

History 3 

Latin 5 

Mathematics 4 

Physiology 1 

l9 

II. English 3 

French or German ... 4 

History 3 

Latin 6 

Mathematics 4 

19 

III. English 3 

French or German ... 4 

Latin 5 

Mathematics 4 

Physics 5 

21 

IV. English 3 

Latin 6 

Electives 12 

Astronomy 

Biology 

Chemistry 

French or German 

History 

Mathematics 

Physiography 

"20 

III. — Scientific. 

I. Biology 3 

Enghsh 3 

French or German or Span- 
ish or Latin .... 5 

History 3 

Mathematics 4 

Physiology 1 

"19 

II. English 3 

French or German or 

Spanish (4) or Latin (5) 4oro 
History 3 



APPENDIX B 



475 



Year. Periods a Week. 

Mathematics 4 

Physiography or Chemis- 
try • • 4 

18 or 19 

III. Civics and Economics . . 3 

English 3 

French or German or Span- 
ish (4) or Latin (5) . 4 or 5 

Mathematics 4 

Physics 5 

19 or 20 

IV. English 3 

French or German or Span- 
ish (4) or Latin (5) . 4 or 5 

Electivesi 12 

Astronomy 

Biology 

Chemistry 

History 

Mathematics 

Physiography 

19 or 20 

IV. — Modern Language. 

I. Biology 3 

English 3 

French 5 

History 3 

Mathematics 4 

Physiology 1 

"19 

English 3 

French 4 

German 4 

History 3 

Mathematics 4 

"Is 



II. 



III. 



English 3 

French 4 

German 4 

Mathematics 4 

Physics 6 



Year. 
IV. 



II. 



Periods a Week. 

Chemistry 4 

English 3 

German 4 

History 4 

Mathematics 4 

~19 
V. — Commercial. 

Biology 3 

English 3 

French or German or Span- 
ish 6 

History 3 

Mathematics 4 

Physiology 1 

Bookkeeping and Commer- 
cial Arithmetic ... 4 

English . • 3 

History 3 

Mathematics 4 

The Modern Language 

continued 4 

Is 



III. 



Bookkeeping and Commer- 
cial Arithmetic ... 4 
Civics and Economics . . 3 

English 3 

Stenography and Type- 
writing 5 

The Modern Language 
continued or a second 
Modern Language begun 
(4) or Physics (5) . . 4 or 5 

19 or 20 

Commercial Law and His- 
tory of Commerce . . 4 

English 3 

English Composition . . 3 
Stenography and Type- 
writing 6 

The first Modern Lan- 
guage continued, or a 
' A pupil desiring to pursue the study of a second foreign language will be permitted to 
elect one of the modern languages not previously pursued. 



IV. 



476 



THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



Periods a Week. 
second Modern Lan- 
guage continued or 
Chemistry or History . 4 

Tabular View of Studies. 

1st Year. — Drawing, Music, Physi- 
cal Training. 

History ; Oriental, Grecian, 
Roman. 

Language : English, French, 
German, Latin, Spanish. 

Mathematics : Algebra. 

Science: Biology (elementary), 
Physiology. 

2d Year. — Drawing, Music, Physi- 
cal Training. 

Commercial Subjects : Arithme- 
tic, Bookkeeping. 

History : English, Mediaeval, 
Modern. 

Language : English, French, 
German, Greek, Latin, Span- 
ish. 

Mathematics : Geometry. 

Science : Chemistry, Physiog- 
raphy. 



3d Year. — Drawing, Music, Physi- 
cal Training. 

Commerial Subjects : Arithme- 
tic, Bookkeeping, Stenogra- 
phy, Typewriting. 

History : Civics, Economics. 

Language : English, French, 
German, Greek, Latin, Span- 
ish. 

Mathematics : Algebra, Geome- 
try. 

Science : Physics. 

4th Year. — Drawing, Music, Physi- 
cal Training. 

Commercial Subjects : Commer- 
cial Law, History of Com- 
merce, Stenography, Type- 
writing. 

History : Modern-Continental, 
United States. 

Language : English, French, 
German, Greek, Latin, Span- 
ish. 

Mathematics : Algebra, Geome- 
try, Trigonometry. 

Science : Astronomy, Biology, 
Chemistry, Physiography. 



II 



COUESE OF STUDY, ST. MARK'S SCHOOL, SOUTH- 
BOEOUGH, MASSACHUSETTS, 1901-1902. 



FIRST FORM 

ENGLISH. Reading : Kipling's Jungle Books ; Macaulay's Lays of 
Ancient Rome ; Andrew Lang's Blue Poetry Book ; Buuyan's Pil- 
grim's Progress ; Longfellow's Evangeline, Tales of a Wayside Inn. 
Writing. Spelling: The American Word-Book. Composition. 
Declamation. 

HISTORY. History of England (Montgomery). 

LATIN. Collar and Daniell's First Year Latin. Rust's Latin Composi- 
tion. 



APPENDIX B 477 

MATHEMATICS. Arithmetic, through Interest, including problems by 
algebraic methods. Mental Arithmetic. 

SCIENCE. Pliysical Geography. Nature Study. 

ERENCH. Edgren's Grammar. Lyon and de Larpent's French Trans- 
lation Book. Composition. Conversation. 

SACRED STUDY. The Catechism. Bible Lessons. 



SECOND FORM 

ENGLISH. Reading : Scott's Marmion, Lady of the Lake, Talisman ; 

Selection from Hawthorne ; Dickens' Oliver Twist, David Copperfield ; 

Stevenson's Treasure Island. Writing. Spelling : The American 

Word-Book. Composition. Declamation. 
HISTORY. History of France (Montgomery). 
LATIN. Gate to Caesar. The Gallic War, two books. Rust's Latin 

Composition. Bennett's Grammar. 
MATHEMATICS. Arithmetic, finished. Algebra, through Fractions. 
FRENCH. French Grammar (Grandgent). Easy texts for translation. 

Composition. 
SCIENCE. Physical Geography. Nature Study. 
SACRED STUDY. The Bible. 



THIRD FORM 

ENGLISH. Reading: Byron's Mazeppa, Prisoner of Chillon, and other 
poems ; Tennyson's Idylls of the King ; Dryden's Palamon and 
Arcite ; Goldsmith's Poems, She Stoops to Conquer, Vicar of Wake- 
field ; Coleridge's Ancient Mariner ; Pope's Iliad ; Tennyson's Com- 
ing of Arthur, Holy Grail, Passing of Arthur. Composition. Maxwell 
and Smith's Writing in English. Declamation. 

GREEK. The Beginner's Greek Book (White). Selections from the 
Anabasis (Piiillpotts and Jerram). Goodwin's Grammar. 

LATIN. Csesar, Gallic War, four books. Vergil, ^neid, Book I., 
1-300. Dauiell's Latin Composition. Bennett's Grammar. 

FRENCH. French Grammar (Edgren). L'Abbe Constantin (Halevy). 
Les Fleurs de France (Fontaine). Composition. 

GERMAN. Zerbrochene Krug (Zschokke). Marchen und Erzahlungen. 
Conversation. Grammar. 

MATHEMATICS. Algebra, to Quadratic Eqiiations. Plane Geometry, 
Book I. 

SCIENCE. Physiography. 

SACRED STUDY. Old Testament History. 



478 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



FOURTH FORM 

ENGLISH. Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice, Henry 
IV., Macbeth; Eliot: Silas Marner. Rhetoric. Composition. 
Debates. 

HISTOUY. History of the United States (Johnston). 

GREEK. Xenophon, Anabasis, I. -IV. Greek Composition (Collar and 
Daniell). Goodwin's Grammar. 

LATIN. Vergil, Jineid (I.-V.). Daniell's Latin Composition. Ben- 
nett's Grammar. Selections from Nepos. Sight Readings from 
Prose Authors. 

FRENCH. Histoire d'un Conscrit (Erekmann-Chatrian). Colomba 
(Michelet). Mademoiselle de la Seigliere. Composition. 

GERMAN. German Grammar. Nicotiana (Baumbach). Composition. 
Fluch der Schonheit (Riehl). L' Arrabbiata (Heyse). Zerbrochene 
Krug (Zschokke). (^Substitute for Greek.) 

MATHEMATICS. Algebra, finished. Plane Geometry, three books. 

SCIENCE. (1) Botany. (2) Mechanical Drawing. Either (I) or {2) 
is required when Greek is omitted- 

SACRED STUDY. Life of Christ: Study of the Gospels. 



FIFTH FORM 

ENGLISH. Shakespeare's Macbeth; Burke's Speech on Conciliation 
with America ; Milton's Shorter Poems ; Sir Roger de Coverley 
Papers, from the Spectator; Macaulay's Essays on Milton and 
Addison. Composition. Rhetoric. Extemporaneous Speaking. 

HISTORY. (I) A History of Greece (Myer). History of Rome 
(Allen). (2) History of the United States (Eiske). History of 
England (Lamed). 

GREEK. Xeuophon: Anabasis, II. (rCTzew), VII. ; Hellenica, II.-VII., 
Selections ; Cyropsedia, Selections. Translations at sight. Greek 
Composition. 

LATIN. Cicero, four orations against Catiline. Selections from Ovid 
and Vergil. Sallust's Catiline. Sight Reading. Daniell's Latin 
Composition. Bennett's Grammar. 

FRENCH. Corneille, Racine, Moliere : one play by each author. Made- 
moiselle de la Seigliere. Colomba. Trois Coutes Choisis. Reading 
at sight. Composition, based on texts. 

GERMAN. Katzensteg (Sudennann). Der NefFe als Oukel. (Schiller). 
Der Schwiegersohn (Baumbach). Aus dem Staat Friedrichs des 
Grossen (Freytag). Das Wirthshaus zu Cransac (Zschokke). Silva's 
Aus meinem Konigreich. Grammar (Joynes-Meissner and Thomas). 



APPENDIX B 479 



MATHEMATICS. Geometry. Reviews. 
SCIENCE. Physics, with laboratory work. 

(^See Sixth Form Electives.') 
SACRED STUDY. Early Church History. 



SIXTH FOEM 



ENGLISH. Composition : Hill's Principles of Rhetoric ; Practice in 
Writing. Literature : Swift's Battle of the Books and Gulliver's 
Travels ; Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (Part I.) ; Pope's Rape of the 
Lock, Epistle to Arbuthnot, and Iliad I., VI., XXII. ; The Lives 
of Swift, Defoe, and Pope, in the English Men of Letters Series ; 
Thackeray's English Humorists, and Henry Esmond. Three hours a 
week. Extemporaneous Speaking. One hour a week. 

LATIN. Cicero : Roscius Amerinus, Archias, Manilian Law, Milo, and 
other orations. Vergil : iEneid, Books VI.-XII. Mather and 
Wheeler's Latin Composition. Six hours a week. 

GERMAN. Equivalent to course in Eifth Form, for those who have not 
taken it. Four hours a week. 

SACRED STUDY. Church History. One hour a week. 

Electives. 

MATHEMATICS. (1) Trigonometry, Solid Geometry. (2) Advanced 
Algebra. (3) Analytic Geometry. Three hours a week. 

SCIENCE. (1) Physiography. (2) Mechanical Drawing, including Pro- 
jections. (3) Advanced Physics. (4) Botany. (5) Meteorology. 
Laboratory work in all the science courses. Four hours a week. 

HISTORY. (1) Emerton's Mediaeval Europe (814-1300). (2) John- 
ston's American Politics. Three hours a week. 

GREEK. Homer: Iliad and Odyssey, Selections and at sight. Attic 
Prose at sight (Euripides, Medea). Four hours a week. 

GERMAN. Composition. Thomas's Grammar. Wilhelm Tell (Schiller). 
Minna von Barnhelm (Lessing). Dichtung und Wahrheit (Goethe). 
Aus dem Staat Friedrichs (Prey tag). Neffe als Onkel (Schiller). 
Lyrics. Sight Translation. Four hours a week. 



480 



THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 



III 



COURSES OF STUDY OF THE LOWELL HIGH 
SCHOOL, SAN FRANCISCO, 1901 

Conspectus of the Four Courses 



Tear 


SUBJECTS 


I. 
Latin- 
Scientific 
Periods 


II. 
Classical 
Periods 


III. 

Modern Language 
Periods 

i.§ ii.ir 


IV. 

Scientific 

Periods 

L§ II.§ 


I. 


Mathematics 

English 

Latin 

Science 

History 

Drawing 


2 
4 
4 
3 
4 

o 


Same as 
Course I. 


Same as 
Course I. 


Same as 
Course I. 


II. 


Mathematics 

English 

Latin 

Science 

History 

Greek 

Drawing 


4 

3 
5 
4 
3 

1 


4 
3 
5 

4,0 

3 
0,4 

1 


Same as 
Course I. 


Same as 
Course I. 


III. 


Mathematics 

English 

Latin 

Science 

History 

Greek 

French 

German 


5 
3 
4 
5 
3 


4 
2 
4 
2 
3 
5 


5 
3 

(4)* 
5 
3 

(4)* 
(4)* 


5 
2 

(4)t 
2 
3 

(4)t 

m 


5 

3 
4,0 
b,9 

3 


5 

•d,a 

5,9 
3,0 

(4)11 
(4)11 


IV. 


Mathematics 

English 

Latin 

Science 

History 

Greek 

French 

German 

Drawing 


3 
5 

(4)* 
3 
5 

(4)* 
(4)* 


4,0 
4,3 
(4)t 
4 
0,5 
(4)t 
(4)t 
(4)t 


3 
5 

(4)* 
3 
5 

(4)* 
(4)* 


4,0 
4,5 

(4)t 

4 
0,5 

(4)t 
(4)t 


3 
6 

3 
5 

4 


3 . 
4,5 

3 

4,5 

(4)11 
(4)11 
4 



Italicized numbers apply to second term only. 
* Any one of three languages, 
t Any two of the four languages. 
t Any two of the three languages. 



II Either one of tlie two languages. 
§ Compare with Course I. 
"ir Compare with Course II. 



APPENDIX C 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

General histories, local, state, and national, are not included. State and 
city school reports, and reports and catalogues of individual institutions are 
likewise omitted, with the exception of a few wliich contain historical notes, 
reprints of earlier documents, or other matter of unusual historical in- 
terest. Histories of a few institutions of higher education are included be- 
cause of matter which they contain relating to secondary schools. 
For list of abbreviations, see p. xiii. 

I. General 

Academies and other schools in New England and New York. Quarterly 
Register and Journal of the American Education Society, v. 2, pp. 
231-237. Andover, 1830. 
List of academies and their funds. Some additional items are given 

relating to the more important schools. 

Academies, high schools, and gymnasia. The Quarterly Register of the 
American Education Society, v. 3, pp. 28S-292. Boston, 1831. 
An interesting supplement to the account in the preceding volume. 

Academy, The old village. The Atlantic Monthly, v. 72, pp. 853-855, 
December, 1893. 
From the Contributors' Club. A bright and entertaining sketch of a 
country academy fifty years ago. 

Adams, Charles Kendall. Ought the state to provide for higher education ? 
The New Englander, v. 37, pp. 362-384, May, 1878. 
A reply to President Magoun's article (New Englander, July, 1877) on The 
source of American education. 

Adams, Charles Kendall. Review of Ten Brook's "American state 
universities, their origin and progress." N. A. Rev., v. 121, pp. 
365-408, October, 1875. 
This book review is substantially an independent article. It contains in- 
teresting notes on the history of secondary as well as of higher education. It 
called forth a reply from President Magoun, q. v. 

31 



482 THE MAKING OF OUR. MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Adams, Francis. The free school system of the United States. London : 
Chapman and Hall, 1875, pp. 309. 
Calls attention to the increase of high schools and decrease of academies in 
different states, pp. 84-95. 

Allen, Nathan, M.D. The old academies. New Englander and Yale 
Review, v. 44, pp. 104-112, January, 1885. 
Reviews the objects for which the academies were founded, and proceeds 
with adverse criticism of high schools. 

Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and 
Maryland. Proceedings of the annual convention. 
The first two numbers, 1887 and 1888, appeared under the title of the 
College Association of Pennsylvania; the third to the sixth, 1889-92 (num- 
bered 1-4), under the title of the College Association of the Middle States and 
Maryland ; the series under the present title began in 1893 (numbered 1), the 
following issue was numbered 2, but with the issue of 1895, consecutive num- 
bering from the beginning was adopted, making that issue no. 9. A list of 
the earlier publications of the Association appears in the issue for 1898 (no. 12). 

Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States. 

Proceedings of the [annual] meeting. 
The series begins with the first meeting, held in 1895. 
Austin, L. H. The province of the western high school. Proc. N. E. A., 

1891, pp. 677-687. 

Barney, H. H. Report on the American system of graded free schools, to 
the board of trustees and visitors of common schools. Printed by 
order of the board. Cincinnati, 1851, pp. 72. 
A valuable document. The writer was principal of the central school of 

Cincinnati. A reply was published by Dr. Jerome Mudd, q. v. 

Blackmar, Frank W., Ph.D. The history of federal and state aid to 
higher education in the United States. Circ. Inf. no. 1, 1890. Am. 
Ed. Hist., no. 9, pp. 343. 
A very comprehensive work, bringing together much information not readily 

found elsewhere. 

Blodgett, James H. Secondary education in census years. School and 
College, V. 1, pp. 14-21, January, 1892. 
Points out the difficulty that has been experienced in the attempt to secure 
accurate statistical information regarding secondary schools. 

Boone, Eichard G. Education in the United States ; its history from the 
earliest settlements. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1893, pp. 
15 + 402. 
Brings together a great many significant facts regarding the development of 
our secondary education. See especially chapters 1, 3, 5, 15, 19, and 21. 



APPENDIX C 483 

Boutwell, George S. Thoughts ou educational topics and institutions. 
Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Co., 1859, pp. 365. 

Brown, Elmer Ellsworth. Secondary education. In Butler, Education 
in the United States (Albany, 1900), monograph 4, v. 1, pp. 143-205. 

Brown, Elmer Ellsworth. Secondary education in the United States. His- 
torical sketch. The School Review, v. 5, pp. 84-94, 139-147, 193- 
200, 269-285 (February, March, April, and May, 1897) ; v. 6, pp. 
225-238, 357-363, 527-540 (April, May, and September, 1898) ; v. 
7, pp. 36-41, 103-112, 286-294 (January, February, and May, 1899); 
V. 8, pp. 485-498, 540-548 (October and November, 1900); and v. 
9, pp. 34-52 (January, 1901). 

Bush, G. Gary, Ph.D. The first common schools of New England. New 
Englander and Yale Review, v. 44, pp. 214-226, 330-343, March and 
May, 1885. 

Clews, Elsie "W., Ph.D. Educational legislation and administration of the 
colonial governments. Col. Univ. Contribs., v. 6, nos. 1-4. New 
York : The Macmillan Co., 1899, pp. 9 + 524. 
An extremely valuable compilation of colonial documents, with historical 
notes. It covers all of the colonies and the whole colonial period. A bibli- 
ography is given in Appendix B. 

Constitutional provision respecting education. Am. Jouru. Ed., v. 17, pp. 
81-124. 
Provisions found in the constitutions of the several states down to 1867. 

Corbett, Henry R. Free high schools for rural pupils. Rept. Comr. Ed. 
for 1899-1900, v. 1, pp. 643-662. 
Reprinted with minor changes from The School Review for April and May, 
1900. Notes are added by Professor J. W. Stearns of Wisconsin. 

Cummings, A. W., D.D., LL.D. The early schools of Methodism. New 
York : PhilUps & Hunt, 1886, pp. 432. 
A valuable survey of the schools established by the Methodist Episcopal 
church in the " Asburyan " period. 

Edwards, B. B. Education and literary institutions. The American 
Quarterly Register, v. 5, pp. 273-331. Boston, May, 1833. 
A remarkably painstaking and comprehensive account of education, elemen- 
tary, secondary, and higher, in the several states in 1833. An abridgment of 
this article may be found in the Am. Journ. Ed., v. 27, pp. 289-338. 

Fay, Edward Allen. The secondary and higher education of the deaf in 
America. Forty-third annual report of the Columbia Institution for 
the Deaf and Dumb (Washington, 1900), pp. 16-20. 
A very interesting paper, prepared for the International Congress for the 

Study of Questions of -Education and Assistance of Deaf-Mutes held at Paris 

in August. ISOO. 



484 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Fitch, J. G., LL.D. Notes on American scliools and training colleges. 
London : Macraillan and Co., 1890, pp. 133. 
Pages 25-31 present a sympathetic account of American high schools from 
an English point of view. 

Free scliools of New England. N. A. Rev., v. 19, pp. 448-457, October, 1824. 
A review of James G. Carter's Letters . . . on the free scliools of New 
Englaml. 

Gilman, D. C. Education in America, 1776-1876. N. A. Rev., v. 122, 
pp. 191-228, January, 1S76. 
Contains brief passages relating to secondary schools. 

Hammond, Eev. Charles. New England academies and classical schools. 
Aui. Jouni. Ed., V. 16, pp. 403-429. Reproduced, Rept. Comr. Ed., 
18G7-68, pp. 403-429 ; and, Fortieth Annual Report of the [Massa- 
chusetts] Board of Education, 1875-76, appendix, pp. 182-207- 

Harley, Lewis R. The high school system. Annals of the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science, v. 8, no. 2, pp. 120-130, 
September, 1896. 

Hedges, Nathan. Schools as they were sixty years ago. Am. Journ. Ed., 
V. 16, pp. 737-742. 

Hill, Frank A. How far the public high school is a just charge upon the 
public treasury. An address given before the New England Associa- 
tion of Colleges and Preparatory Schools at Springfield, Oct. 15, 1898. 
Reprint, pp. 28 + S. 

Hinsdale, B. A., Ph.D., LL.D. Documents illustrative of American educa- 
tional history. Rept. Comr. Ed., 1892-93, v. 2, pp. 1225-1414. 
An extensive collection, with valuable notes, covering 190 pages. Use is 
made of Dr. Hough's compilation, but much is given here that was not found 
in the earlier work. 

Hough, Franklin B. Coustitutionr.l provisions relating to education, litera- 
ture, and science in the several states of the American Union. . . . 
Circ. Inf. no. 7, 1875, pp. 130. 
Complete down to the date of publication. A classified summary adds to 

its value. 

Hoyt, John W. Report on education. Washington, 1870, pp. 398. 

The report of a commissioner to the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867. 
Chapter 4 compares American with European secondary education. 

Huling, Ray Greene. The American high school. Educational Review, 
v. 2, |.p. 10-56, 123-139, June and July, 1891. 

Hull, Lawrence Cameron. Private schools for boys. Ed. Rev., v. 20, pp. 
365-376, November, 1900. 



APPENDIX C 485 

Keyes, Charles H. The diiFeretitiation of the American secondary school. 
Proc. N. E. A., 1899, pp. 412-421. 

Kiddle, Henry, and Schem, Alexander J. The cyclopaedia of education. 
New York and London, 18S3. 

The article on High Schools contains brief historical notes. 

Low, Seth. The public high school. Address delivered on the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of the founding of the Albany higli school, November 16, 
1893. University of the State of New York. 107th annual report of 
the Regents. Vol. 1, appendix, pp. 537-552. Albany, 1894. 

Magoun, Eev. Geo. F. The source of American education — popular and 
religious. The New Englander, v. 36, pp. 445-486, July, 1877. 

An argument to show that schools of colonial times were not under state 
control. It includes quotations from a wide range of authorities both early 
and recent. In part, a reply to C. K. Adams' review of Ten Brook, q. v. See 
also, Dr. Adams' I'ejoinder, Ought the state to provide, etc. 

Mayo, Eev. A. D., LL.D. Public schools during the colonial and revolu- 
tionary period in the United States. Kept. Comr. Ed. for 1893-94, 
V. 1, pp. 639-738. 

Mayo, Rev. A. D., LL.D. Education in the northwest during the first 
half century of the republic, 1790-1840. Rept. Comr. Ed. for 1894- 
95, V. 2, pp. 1513-1550. 

Mayo, Rev. A. D., LL.D. The American common school in New York, 
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania during the first half century of the 
republic. Kept. Comr. Ed. for 1895-96, v. 1, pp. 219-266. "" 

Mayo, Rev. A. D., LL.D. The American common school in the southern 
states during the first half century of the republic, 1790-1840. liept. 
Comr. Ed. for 1895-96, v. 1, pp. 267-338. 

Mayo, [Rev.] A. D., LL.D. Horace Mann and the great revival of the Ameri- 
can common school, 1830-1850. Rept. Comr. Ed. for 1896-97, v. 1, 
pp. 715-767. 

Mayo, Rev. A. D. [LL.D.]. Henry Barnard. Rept. Comr. Ed. for 1896- 
97, v. 1, pp. 769-810. 

Mayo, Rev. A. D., LL.D. The organization and reconstruction of state sys- 
tems of common-school education in the North Atlantic states from 
1830 to 1865. Rept. Comr. Ed. for 1897-98, v. 1, pp. 355-486. 

Mayo, Rev. A. D. [LL.D.]. The development of the common school in the 
western states from 1830 to 1865. Rept. Comr. Ed. for 1898-99, 
V. 1, pp. 357-450. 



486 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Mudd, Jerome, M.D. A review of the Amerieau system of graded free 

schools, together with reasons for opposing the union of the funds 

of the common schools with those of Messrs. Hughes & Woodward. 

Cincinnati, 1853, pp. 52. 

Directed in part against the report by H. H. Barney, q. v. The author was 

a member of the Cincinnati school board, and wrote from a Roman Catholic 

standpoint. 

New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools. Addresses 
and proceedings. 
The series begins with a report issued in 1892, under the editorship of Mr. 
Ray Greene Huling, and embracing an account of the preliminary meeting 
(Oct. 16 and 17, 1885), the first annual meeting (Oct. 16, 1886), and the first 
special meeting (Jan. 7 and 8, 1887). 

Nightingale, A. F., Compiler. Handbook of requirements for admission 
to the colleges of the United States. New York, 1879, pp. 61. 

Nightingale, A. F. The tendency of students to omit the college course 
and to enter professional schools direct from secondary schools. 
School Review, v. 5, pp. 73-83, February, 1897. 

Notre Dame of Namur, Sisters of. A golden jubilee of education. N. p., 
[1899,] pp. 14. 

Oliver, Henry K. " 'T is more than sixty years since," or " How I was 
educated." From six to fourteen. Am. Inst. Instr., 1871, pp. 51-79. 
The greater part of this interesting chapter of reminiscence is reproduced in 
Am. Journ. Ed., v. 26, pp. 209-224. 

Peck, William T. The high school and high school programs. Pp. 1-31. 

Bound with the Twenty-fourth annual report of the [Rhode Island] 

State Board of Education. Providence, 1894. 
Compares early college courses with present courses in high schools, and 
presents a brief table of references. 

Philbrick, John D., LL.D. City school systems in the United States. 
Circ. Inf. no. 1, 1SS5, pp. 207- 
Sketches the history of high schools, their specialization, their merits and 
defects, evening high schools, and industrial education ; pp. 22-32, _35-37, 
69-89. 

Fickard, J. L., LL.D. Secondary schools. Education, v. 15, pp. 21-26, 
September, 1S94. 
A brief history of what the National Council of Education has done with 
the problem of the course of study for secondary schools. 

Reports of the Commissioner of Education. Washington, D. C 

Since 1871, these annual reports have presented statistics of private second- 
ary schools ; since 1876, of city high schools ; since 1886-87, of students 



APPENDIX C 487 

pursuing each of the more common secondary school studies ; since 1889-90, 
of public high schools not included in city school systems ; and since 1893-94 
there has been added each year an analysis of these statistics, with valuable 
comparative tables. 

Keport of committee on secondary education (with discussion). Proc. 
N. E. A., 1885, pp. 447-458. 
Reviews the history of academies and discusses their relation to high 
schools. 

Beport of the committee on secondary school studies appointed at the 
meeting of the National Educational Association July 9, 1892, with 
the reports of the conferences arranged by this committee and held 
December 28-30, 1892. United States Bureau of Education, Wash- 
ington, 1893, pp. 249. 
Known everywhere as the "Report of the Committee of Ten." Cf. p. 414. 

Report on preparation for college (with discussion). The National Council 
of Education. Proceedings of the Eourtli Annual Meeting, pp. 36-42. 
Bound with Proc. N. E. A., session of 1884. 

Saunders, Louise Sheffield Brownell. Private secondary schools for girls. 
Ed. Rev., V. 20, pp. 357-364, November, 1900. 

Schools as they were in the United States sixty and seventy years ago. 
Am. Jouni. Ed., v. 13, pp. 737-752. 
Reminiscences by Salem Town, LL.D., Josiah Quincy, William Darlington, 
M.D., LL.D., Wm. B. Fowle, Edward Everett, John Davis, Robert Coram ; 
together with paragraphs from Watson's Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Seaman, J. E. High schools and the state (with discussion). Proc 
N. E. A., 1885, pp. 173-180. 
Argument for public high schools. 

Siljestrom, P. A. The educational institutions of the United States, their 
character and organization. Translated from the Swedish by Frederica 
Rowan. London : John Chapman, 1853, pp. 16 + 415. 

Thomas, Grace Powers [Editor]. Where to educate, 1898-1899. A 
guide to the best private schools, higher institutions of learning, etc., 
in the United States. Boston: Brown and Company [1898], pp. 
25 + 379. 

Thurber, Charles H. Breuneude Pragen in dem Unterrichtswesen der 
Veremigten Staaten. Deutsche Zeitschrift fiir das auslaudisches 
Unterrichtswesen, v. 2, pp. 281-289, July, 1897. 

Tomlinson, E. T. The field and work of the academy. Education, v. 5, 
pp. 127-133, November, 1884. 



488 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Tucker, Professor George. Educational statistics of census of 1840. Am. 
Journ. Ed., v. 24, pp. 171-176. 
A summary of the reports of schools of all grades, with explanatory 
notes. 

University, The, and the high schools. Communication from a committee 
of the board of regents of the University of Minnesota to the conven- 
tion of county and city school superintendents held in Minneapolis, 
August 26 and 27, 1872, read by William W. Folwell. 

Webster, Hoah, Jr. Paragraphs from historical and geographical account 
of the United States. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 24, pp. 159-163. 
A brief summary of educational conditions in each of the states about the 
year 1806. 

West, Professor Andrew F. The relation of secondary education to the 
American university problem. Proc N. E. A., 1885, pp. 195-213. 
The appended tables give interesting information regarding courses of study 
in secondary schools in 1885. The paper is otherwise full of interest. 

Winterbotham, Eev. W. View of the United States of America (extracts 
from). Am. Journ. Ed., v. 24, pp. 137-157- 
An interesting account of educational conditions in each of the states about 
the year 1796. Cf. p. 203 of this work. 

Woodbridge, Rev. William. Reminiscences of female education. Am. 
Journ. Ed., v. 16, pp. 137-140. 

II. State and Local 

Allen, WDliam F., and Spencer, David E. Higher education in Wisconsin. 

Circ. Inf. no. 1, 1889. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 7, pp. 68. 
Contains references to secondary schools on pp. 19, 20, 41, 42. Bibli- 
ographies may be found on pp. 44 and 49-50. 

Barnard, Henry, LL.D. History of common schools in Connecticut. Am. 
Journ. Ed., v. 4, pp. 657-710; v. 5, pp. 114-154; v. 1.3, pp. 725- 
736; V. 14, pp. 244-275 ; v. 15, pp. 276-331. 

Blackmar, Frank W., Ph. D. Higher education in Kansas. Circ. Inf. no. 
2, 1900. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 27, pp. 166. Part 1, cli. 5, High Schools ; 
part 2, Non-State or Private Schools. 

Boese, Thomas. Public education in the city of New York. New York, 
1869, pp. 228. 
Contains brief items relating to secondary schools on pp. 71, 72, 75, 171- 
173. The text of the acts of March 30 and April 17, 1866, relating to the 
College of the City of New York, is given on pp. 202-204. 



APPENDIX C 489 

Boame, Wm. Oland. History of the Public School Society of the City of 
New York. New York, 1870, pp. 32 + 768. 

The steps taken toward the establishment of high schools are narrated on pp. 
107, 116, 157 ; and in chapter 17, pp. 645-651. 

Bouton, Nathaniel. The history of education in New- Hampshire. A dis- 
course, delivered before the New-Hampshire Historical Society, at 
their annual meeting in Concord, June 12, 1833. Concord, 1833, 
pp. 36. 

Bush, George Gary, Ph.D. History of education in Florida. Circ. Inf. 
no. 7, 1888. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 6, pp. 54. 

A large part of this monograph has to do with education of a secondary 
grade. 

Bosh, George Gary, Ph.D. History of higher education in Massachusetts. 
Circ. Inf. no. 6, 1891. Am. Ed. Hist. uo. 13, pp. 445. 

Devoted in the main to the history of colleges and universities. A bibli- 
ography of the history of Harvard University is given in chapter 8. The 
introduction presents highly suggestive views of secondary education. Mrs. 
Sarah D. (Locke) Stowe contributes a valuable chapter (19) on higher edu- 
cation for women. 

Bush, George Gary, Ph.D. History of education in New Hampshire. 
Circ. Inf. no. 3, 1898. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 23, pp. 170. 

Bush, George Gary, Ph. D. History of education in Vermont. Circ. Inf. 
no. 4, 1900. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 29, pp. 216. 

Chapters 2 and 3, secondary education. A bibliography appears on pp. 214- 
215. 

Caldwell, H. W. An introduction to the history of higher education in 
Nebraska, and a brief account of the University of Nebraska. Trans- 
actions and Reports of the Nebraska State Historical Society, v. 3, 
pp. 201-229. 
Touches at some points upon the history of secondary schools. 

Caldwell, Howard W. Education in Nebraska. Circ. Inf. no. 3, 1902. 
Am. Ed. Hist. no. 32, pp. 268. High schools, pp. 259-262. Bibliog- 
raphy, pp. 267-268. 

Cheney, May L. High school legislation in California since 1879. Pacific 
Educational Journal, v. 11, pp. 122-125, March, 1895. 

Clark, Willis G. History of education in Alabama, 1702-1889. Circ. Inf, 
no. 3, 1889. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 8, pp. 281. 

Passages relating to secondary schools may be found on the following pages : 
4, 7, 27, 203-213, 224-237, 259. A brief bibliography is given on page 10, 



490 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Coggeshall, William T. System of common schools in Ohio. Am. Journ. 
Ed., V. 6, pp. 81-103.' 
Contains valuable historical notes, but not a great deal relating to second- 
ary schools. 

Colorado. 1861-1885. Education in Colorado. A brief history of the 
early educational interests of Colorado, together with the history of 
the state teachers' association, and short sketches of piivate and de- 
nominational institutions. Compiled by order of the state teachers' 
association. Denver, Colo., 1885, pp. 99. 
The editorial committee consisted of Horace M. Hale, Aaron Gove, and 

Joseph C. Shattuck. 

Connecticut. A brief history of public education in Connecticut. [Eleventh] 
Annual Report of the Board of Education of the State- of Connecticut 
[1876], pp. 91-134. 
Pp. 120-128 relate especially to secondary schools. 

Considine, The Rev. Y. J. A brief chronological account of the Catholic 
educational institutions of the archdiocese of New York. New York : 
Benziger Brothers, 1894, pp. 59. 
A very compact and convenient summary, strictly chronological in its 

arrangement. 

Constitutional and legal provisions respecting schools. Am. Journ. Ed., 

V. 24, pp. 697-723. 
A history of Massachusetts school legislation down to and including the act of 
March 10, 1827; also the constitutional revisions of 1867-68 affecting education. 

Davis, "Winfield J. History and progress of the public school department 
of the city of Sacramento [California], 1849-1893. . . . Sacramento, 
1895, pp. 174. Historical sketch, pp. 1-127 ; annual report for 1894, 
pp. 129-174. 

Emerson, George B. Education in Massachusetts : early legislation and 
history. A lecture of a course by members of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society, delivered before tlie Lowell Institute, Feb. 16, 
1869. Boston, 1869, pp. 36. 

Fay, Edwin Whitfield, Ph. D. The history of education in Louisiana. 
Circ. Inf. no. 1, 1898. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 20, pp. 263. Bibliography 
on p. 263. 

Foote, John P. The schools of Cincinnati and its vicinity. Cincinnati, 
1855, pp. 9 + 232. 

Freese, Andrew. Early history of the Cleveland public schools. Pablished 
by order of the Board of Education. Cleveland, O. : Robinson, 
Savage & Co., 1876, pp. 128. 



APPENDIX C 491 

Hinsdale, B. A., Ph.D., LL.D. The history of populai' education on the 
Western Reserve. An address delivered in the series of educational 
conferences held in Association Hall, Cleveland, September 7 and 8, 
1896. Reprint from Ohio Arch, and His. Society Publications, pp. 
35-58. 
Contains interesting notes on early academies and high schools. 

Hoose, J. H. A vindication of the common school, free high school, and 
normal school systems of education as they exist in the state of New 
York. New York : E. Steiger, 1877, pp. 33. 

Hutton, Charles E. High schools of California. Pacific Educational 
Journal, v. 10, pp. 252-259, June, 1894. 
Statistics of high schools from 1888 to 1892, with additional information. 

Indiana. Circular of information relating to the commissioning of high 
schools. Revised by the State Board of Education Oct. 29, 1895, 
pp. 21. 

Ingle, Edward. Local institutions of Virginia. Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity Studies in Historical and Political Science, Third Series, nos. 
2-3. Baltimore, 1885. 

Jones, Charles Edgeworth. Education in Georgia. Circ Inf. no. 4, 1888. 
Am. Ed. Hist. no. 5, pp. 154. 
Chapter 2 contains interesting information relating to the old academies. 

Kansas. Columbian history of education in Kansas. Topeka, 1893, pp. 
8 + 231. 

Knight, George "W., Ph.D., and Commons, John R., A.M. The history of 
higher education in Ohio. Circ. Inf. no. 5, 1891. Am. Ed. Hist, 
no. 12, pp. 258. 
Bibliographical notes are appended to the principal chapters. The appen- 
dix contains a history of the Association of Ohio Colleges, by Professor John 
M. Ellis ; and the abstract of a paper on colleges and high schools, by Pro- 
fessor Henry C. King. 

Lewis, Alvin Fayette. History of higher education in Kentucky. Circ. 
Inf. no. 3, 1899. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 25, pp. 350. 

Louisville. Reports of the Louisville school board for the fiscal year ending 
December 31, 1895, and the school year ending June 30, 1896. Louis- 
ville, Ky., 1896, pp. 351. Historical notes on the Male Higli School, 
pp. 62-84; on the Girls' High School, pp. 85-122; on the Manual 
Training School, pp. 123-146. 

Lowell, Massachusetts. Whitcomb, Arthur K. The schools of Lowell. His- 
torical sketch. Lowell Daily Courier, February 24, 1900, pp. 5 and 8. 
Contains ap interesting account of the Lowell High School. 



492 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

McCrady, Edward, Jr. Education in South Carolina prior to and during 
the Revolution. A paper read before the Historical Society of South 
Carolina, 6th August, 1S83. Published by the Society. Charleston, 
S. C, 1883, pp. 54. 

McCrady, Edward, Jr. McMaster and Macaulay. The Nation, v. 37, 
p. 11, July 5, 1883. 

A letter criticising the statement in the first volume of John Bach McMas- 
ter's A history of the people of the United States (New York, 1883) that " In 
South Carolina, prior to 1730, no such thing as a grammar school existed." 

McLaughlin, Andrew C. History of higher education in Michigan. Circ. 
Inf. no. 4, 1891. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 11, pp. 179. 

Devoted for the most part to the history of the University and the several 
colleges of Michigan. An account of the origin of the "diploma school" 
system is given on pp. 70-71. A bibliography of the University is presented 
in chapter 11. A short chapter on Common schools and secondary education, 
is appended. 

Mann, Horace. Report for 1846. Tenth annual report. Works, v, 5, 
pp. 105-140. Boston, 1891. 

Some account of the Massachusetts laws of 1642 and 1647, with comment 
on the same. 

Martin, George H. The early school legislation of Massachusetts. New 
England Magazine, New Series, v. 8, pp. 525-538, June, 1893. 

Martin, George H. Massachusetts schools before the Revolution. New 
England Magazine, New Series, v. 9, pp. 356-368, November, 1893. 

Martin, George H. The district school and the academy in Massachusetts. 
New England Magazine, New Series, v. 9, pp. 450-462, December, 
1893. These three articles are reproduced in the following : 

Martin, George H. The evolution of the Massachusetts public school 
system. A historical sketch. New York : D. Appleton and Com- 
pany, 1894, pp. 20 + 284. 
I;cctures 1, 2, 3, and 5 deal to some extent with secondary education. _ 

Massacliusetts policy of incorporated academies. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 17, 
pp. 574-575. Reproduced Idem, v. 30, pp. 58-59 ; Idem, pp. 761- 
762. Also Rept. Comr. Ed. for the year 1868, pp. 431-432. Also 
Eortieth annual report of the [Massachusetts] Board of Education, 
1875-76, Appendix E, pp. 207-209. 

Report of a committee of the General Court on the subject of academies, 
1797 ; with comment by the Joint Standing Committee on Education, 
1859. 



APPENDIX C 493 

MassacJmsetts. Statistics of academies aud other secondary schools. Am. 
Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 60-64. 
Massachusetts schools only. The table is reproduced from the Fortieth 
annual report of the [Massachusetts] Board of Education, 1875-76. 

Massachusetts. The high school policy of Massachusetts. The New Eug- 
lander, v. 16, pp. 854-873, November, 1858. 

Mayes, Edward, LL.D. History of education in Mississippi. Circ Inf. 
no. 2, 1899. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 24, pp. 290. 

Meriwether, Colyer. History of higher education in South Carolina with 
a sketch of the free school system. Circ. Inf. no. 3, 1888. Am. 
Ed. Hist. no. 4, pp. 247- Chapter 1 — Early education in the 
Colony. Chapter 2 — Education in the academies. Chapter 8 — 
Bibliography of the history of higher education in South Carolina 
(very full). Appendix 2 — Education in South Carolina prior to and 
during the Revolution. By Edward McCrady, Jr. 

Merriam, Lucius Salisbury, Ph.D. Higher education in Tennessee. Circ. 
Inf. no. 5, 1893. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 16, pp. 287- 
Contains references to secondary education in the histories of colleges and 
universities ; and in chapter 12, on The public school system of Tennessee, by 
Thaddeus P. Thomas, M.A. Bibliographical notes are appended to the 
principal chapters. 

Michigan. Historical sketches of education in Michigan. Forty-fourth 
annual report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the 
State of Michigan, with accompanying documents, for the year 1880, 
pp. 295-453. 
A valuable sketch of secondary education is included, pp. 335-352. 

Michigan. Reports of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the state 
of Michigan for the years 1855, 1856, and 1857- Ira Mayhew, Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction. Lansing, 1858, pp. 7 + 629. 
These three reports together constitute a valuable volume. Attention may 
be called especially to the discussion of " Intermediate or academic schools," 
pp. 16-18 ; "Colleges aud academies," pp. 45-47 ; " Union schools," pp. 47- 
63 ; also to the very able report of 1856 by President Henry P. Tappan, of the 
University of Michigan, pp. 155-184, in which "an entire system of public 
education " is described. 

Millar, John. The school system of the state of New York (as viewed by 
a Canadian). Prepared under the authority of the Honorable the 
Minister of Education, as an appendix to his annual report. Toronto : 
Warwick Bro's & Rutter, 1898, pp. 204. 

Minnesota. Annual reports of the inspector of state graded schools. 
The first of these reports was issued in 1897. 



494 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Minnesota. Annual reports of the inspector of state high schools, state of 
Minnesota. 
The first of these reports was issued in 1894. 

Minnesota. Mannal of the high school board, state of Minnesota. E,evised 
edition, 1894, pp. 130. 

Morrison, Wm. S. Some of the fragments of the history of education in 
South Carolina. Proceedings of the State Teachers' Association of 
South Carolina, twenty-third annual meeting, 1894, pp. 6-16. 
Two other papers, containing- historical notes, appear in the same number : 

one by Professor Snyder, on The public schools and their relation to higher 

education, pp. 51-56 ; and one by Professor H. T. Cook, on Relation between 

schools and colleges, pp. 57-62. 

Murray, David, Ph.D., LL.D. History of education in New Jersey. Circ. 
Inf. no. 1, 1899. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 23, pp. 344. 
Contains interesting notes and reminiscences. Chapter 6 relates to second- 
ary education in the counties. 

North Dakota. Manual of the high school board of North Dakota (1896). 

Ohio. A history of education in the state of Ohio. A centennial volume. 
Columbus, Ohio, 1876. 

Ohio. Historical Sketches of the public schools in cities, villages, and 
townships of the state of Ohio. N. p., 1876. 

Parker, Leonard F. Higher education in Iowa. Circ, Inf. no. 6, 1893. 
Am. Ed. Hist. no. 17, pp. 190. 
Contains considerable information on the development of secondary educa- 
tion in chapters 1-4 and 8; also on pages 100-105 and 119-121. 

Phipps, Abner J., Ph.D. High schools of Massachusetts. Fortieth annual 
report of the [Massachusetts] .Board of Education, 1875-76. Appen- 
dix B, pp. 34-47. Boston, 1877- 

Powell, Lyman P. Tlie history of education in Delaware. Circ. Inf. no. 3, 
1893. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 15, pp. 186. 
Chapters 5-7 contain considerable information relating to the history of 
Delaware academies. A bibliography is given in chapter 11. 

Pratt, Daniel J. Annals of public education in the state of New York. In 
proceedings of the University Convocation of the State of New York, 
published in the annual reports of the Regents. 82d Rept., 1869, 
pp. 830-886 ; 83d Rept., 1870, pp. ; 86th Rept., 1873, pp. 

681-712 ; 87th Rept., 1874, pp. 715-780; 89th Rept., 1876, pp. 671- 
744. 
The third instalment (1873) contains a summary of legislative grants and 

franchises for the" benefit of academies. The fourth (1874) relates to the 



APPENDIX C 495 

early history of Columbia College, and includes reprints of Williana Living- 
ston's articles (see pp. 283-287 and 296 of this work). The last instalment 
relates to the founding of the University of the State of New York. All are 
rich in reprints of original documents, collected from many sources. The 
first two instalments, dealing with early colonial schools, have been revised 
and reprinted in the following: 

Pratt, Daniel J. Annals of public education in the state of New York, 
from 1626 to 1746. Albany, 1872, pp. 7 + 152. 

Eamage, B. James. Local government and free schools in South Carolina. 
Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science, 
v. 1, no. 12. Baltimore, October, 1883, pp. 40. 
Pp. 29-40 contain a rather meagre account of free schools in South Carolina. 

Randall, S. S. History of the common school system of the State of New 
York, from its origin in 1795, to the present time. Including the 
various city and other special organizations, and the religious con- 
troversies of 1821, 1832, and 1840. New York : Ivison, Blakeman, 
Taylor & Co., 1871. 

Baper, Charles Lee. The church and private schools in North Carolina. 
A historical study. Greensboro, N. C. : Jos. J. Stone, 1898, pp. 247- 

Sherwood, Sidney, Ph.D. The University of the State of New York. 
History of higher education in the state of New York. Circ. Inf. 
no. 3, 1900. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 28, pp. 538. 

Sherwood, Sidney, Ph.D. University of the State of New York, origin, 
history, and present organization. Regents' Bulletin no. 11, Janu- 
ary, 1893. Albany, 1893, pp. 201-300. 
Introduction. (1) Outline of the present system in New York. (2) The 
founding of the University. (3) An era of educational revolution. (4) Cen- 
tury of University work. Bibliography. Appendix ; text of University laws 
of 1892. 

Shinn, Josiah H. History of education in Arkansas. Circ. Inf. no. 1, 
1900. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 26, pp. 121. 
Part 1, chapter 2, Academies [before the War] ; part 2, chapter 2, City 
systems of high schools and academies. 

Simonds, J. W. Schools as they were in New Hampshire. Am. Journ, 
Ed., V. 28, pp. 353-368. 
Taken from the annual report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
for 1876. 

Smith, Charles Lee. The history of education in North Carolina. Circ. 
Inf. no. 2, 1888. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 3, pp. 180. 
A general survey. Chapter 6 is devoted to secondary education. The ap' 
pendix includes a bibliography. 



496 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Smith, Edward. A history of the schools of Syracuse from its early settle- 
ment to January 1, 1893. Syracuse, N. Y. : C W. Bardeen, 1893, 
pp. 347. 

Snow, Marshall S. Higher education in Missouri. Circ Inf. no. 2, 1898. 
Am. Ed. Hist. no. 21, pp. 164. 

Statistics of public instruction in cities and large towns. Am. Journ. Ed., 
V. 1, pp. 458-470. 
Items relating to high schools in Boston, Philadelphia, and Providence, 

Stearns, J. W., Editor. The Columbian history of education in Wisconsin. 
Published under authority and by direction of the State Committee on 
Educational Exhibit for Wisconsin, 1893, pp. 8 + 720. 

Steiner, Bernard C, Ph.D. Address at the alumni reunion of Frederick Col- 
lege, June 22, 1892. Published in the catalogue of Frederick College, 
Frederick, Md., 1893. 
A carefully prepared sketch of the history of secondary education in 

Maryland. 

Steiner, Bernard C. The history of education in Connecticut. Circ. Inf. 
no. 2, 1893. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 14, pp. 300. 
Chapters 1, 2, and 4 are rich in information with reference to secondary 
education. 

Steiner, Bernard C, Ph.D. History of education in Maryland. Circ. Inf. 
no. 2, 1894. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 19, pp. 331. 

The first two chapters, contributed by Professor Basil Sollers, present a 
remarkably thorough study of the history of secondary schools in Maryland. 

Stockwell, Thomas B. [Editor]. A history of public education in Rhode 
Island from 1636 to 1876. Providence, 1876, pp. 5 + 458. 

Contains : A history of tlie public school system of Rhode Island, by 
Thomas Wentworth Higginson ; a concise history of the rise and progress of 
the public schools in the city of Providence, by Edwin Martin Stone ; an 
account of the University Grammar School ; and brief papers on the history 
of education in other towns and institutions. 

Swett, John. History of the public school system of California. San 
Francisco, 1876, pp. 247. 
References to secondary education are found on pp. 17, 18, 77, SO, 94-95, 
232. 

Taylor, James W. A manual of the Ohio school system ; consisting of an 
historical view of its progress, and a republication of the school laws 
in force. Cincinnati : H. W. Derby & Co., 1S57, pp. 14 + 17-413. 
Contains An historical review by William T. Coggeshall, pp. 325-413. 



APPENDIX C 497 

Tolman, William Howe, Ph.D. History of higher education in Rhode 
Island. Circ. Inf. no. 1, 1894. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 18, pp. 210. 
Parts 1, 2, and 3 contain much information relating to the history of 
secondary schools, with liberal quotations from original documents. A bibli- 
ography is found on pages 209 and 210. 

University of the State of New York. Annual reports of the Regents, 
Albany. 
These reports embody the current history of the secondary and higher edu- 
cation of the state of New York ; and contain besides much valuable informa- 
tion on special topics relating to secondary education in New Yorli and 
elsewhere. 

Virginia. Education in colonial Virginia. By the editor. William and 
Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine.* 
Part 1, V. 5, pp. 219-223, April, 1897. Part 2, v. 6, pp. 1-6, July, 1897. 
Part 3, V. 6, pp. 71-86, October, 1897. Part 4, v. 6, pp. 171-189, January, 
1898. 

Virginia. Historical development of education. Virginia — colonial period. 
Am. Jouru. Ed., v. 27, pp. 33-58. 

Walton, George A. Report on academies. Eortieth annual report of the 
[Massachusetts] Board of Education, 1875-76. Appendix E, pp. 174- 
347. Boston, 1877- 
A detailed account of the Massachusetts academies, including an article on 
"New England academies and classical schooLs," by the Rev. Cliarles Ham- 
mond, A.M. Separate sketches of over one hundred academies are given, 
varying greatly in length and fulness of detail. A number of these sketches 
are reproduced in Barnard's American Journal of Education, and receive 
separate mention in the third division of this bibliography. 

Wickersham, James Pyle, LL.D. A history of education in Pennsylvania, 

private and public, elementary and higher. From the time the Swedes 

settled on the Delaware to the present day. Lancaster, Pa. : Inquirer 

Publishing Company, 18S6, pp. 23 + 683. 

This is an important contribution to the history of civilization in America. 

Its chief defect is the paucity of references to original sources — which were 

evidently used very extensively by the author. Chapters 3, 4, 19, and 22 

treat of secondary education. 

Willard, Samuel, M.D., LL.D. Brief history of early education in Illinois. 
Fifteenth biennial report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
of the State of Illinois (1882-1884), pp. xcviii-cxx. 

Wisconsin. Manual of the free higli schools of Wisconsin. Second edition, 
revised, 1894 (Oliver E. Wells, State Superintendent), pp. 108. 
Third edition, revised, 1900 (L. D. Harvey, State Superintendent), 
pp. 88. 

32 



498 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Woodburn, James Albert, Ph.D. Higher education in Indiana. Circ. Inf. 
no. 1, 1891. Am. Ed. Hist. no. 10, pp. 200. 
Valuable and well -arranged material relating to secondary education is pre- 
sented in the first five chapters. 



III. Individual Institutions 

Abbot Academy. Jackson, Miss Susannah E. Abbot Female Academy, 
Andover. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 597-599. 
From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76. 

Abbot Academy. McKeen, Philena, aud McKeen, Fhehe F. Annals of fifty 
years. A history of Abbot Academy, Audover, Mass., 1829-1879. 
With an introduction by Edwards A. Parle, D.D. Andover : Warren 
F. Draper, 1880, pp. 20 + 259. 

Albany. History of the Albany High School. Albany, 1876. 

Includes a description of the new building and an account of the exercises 
at its dedication. 

Albany High School. General catalog and account of the celebration of the 
25th anniversary. Albany, N. Y., 1894. 

Albany Academy. Historical sketch of the AllDany Academy. Its present 
condition. Albany, 1874, pp. 6. 
A reprint from the Albany Evening Times for June 23, 1874. The name of 
the author does not appear. 

Albany Academy. The celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the 
founding of the Albany Academy. Albany, N. Y., 1889. 
Contains historical sketch by Mr. Ernest J. Miller. 

Bacon Academy. Loomis, Israel Foote. Bacon Academy. Its founder — 
and some account of its service. The Connecticut Quarterly, v. 2, pp. 
121-139, April-June, 1896. 

Bencick Academy. A memorial of the one hundredth anniversary of the 
founding of Berwick Academy, South Berwick, Maine, July 1, 1891. 
Cambridge, 1891, pp. 15 + 118. 

Bethlehem School. Mortimer, C. B. Betldeliem and Betlilehem School. 
New York: Stanford & Delisser, 1858, pp. 208. 

Boston. Semi-centennial anniversary of the English High School, May 2, 
1871- Containing the poem, by Rev. R. C. Waterston, and the ora- 
tion, by Hon. J. Wiley Edmauds. With an account of the festival 
aud an historical appendix. Bostou, 1871, pp. 112. 



APPENDIX C 499 

Boston. Girls in the public schools of Boston. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 13, pp. 
243-266. 
A fairly complete history of the Girls' High School in Boston up to 1861. 

Boston. Memorial of the dedication of the Public Latin and English High 
Schoolhouse. Boston, 1881. 
Addresses, reminiscences, a note on John Cotton's connection with the 
origin of the Latin School, and an account of the new buihiing. 

Boston. English High and Latin Schools, Boston, Mass. A brief history of 
the schools. Journal of Education, v. 13, pp. 134-135. Boston, 
Mass., February 24, 1881. 

Boston. English High School, Boston, Mass., Catalogue of the scholars and 
teachers of the. From 1821 to 1890. 
Published by the English High School Association. Contains historical 
sketch by Thomas Sherwin. 

Boston Latin School. Catalogue of the Boston Public Latin School, estab- 
lished in 1635. With an historical sketch prepared by Henry F. Jenks. 
Boston : Published by the Boston Latin School Association, 1886. 
Historical sketch, pp. 6 + 139 ; catalogue, pp. 8 + 398. 
This work, prepared under the editorial direction of Dr. Edward Everett 

Hale, is the best of its class, so far as my knowledge goes. It embodies the 

results of long-continued and minute research; and is especially rich in reprints 

of original documents. 

Boston Latin Grammar School, The. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 12, pp. 529-560. 
Reproduced, Idem, v. 27, pp. 65-96. 

Boston Latin School, The. Education, v. 1, pp. 499-509, May, 1881. 

Boston Latin School. Brooks, Phillips. The Boston Latin School. The 
New England Magazine, v. 8, pp. 681-704, August, 1893. 
This is an address delivered in 1885 at the celebration of the 250th anniver- 
sary of the founding of the Latin School. It is found also in The oldest school 
in America. 

Boston Latin School. Jenks, Henry F. The Boston Public Latin School. 
1635-1880. (Harvard preparatory schools, nos. 4, 5, and 6.) The 
Harvard Register, v. 2, pp. 196-199, 214-217, and 237-238, October, 
November, and December, 1880. This sketch was republished in 
pamphlet form (Cambridge, Mass. : Moses King, 1881, pp. 24). 
It is less full and accurate than the Historical sketch by the same author in 

the Catalogue of 1886. 

Boston Latin School. The oldest school in America. An oration by Phillips 
Brooks, D.D., and a poem by Robert Grant, at the celebration of the 
two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Boston 



500 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Latin School, April 23, 1885. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Com- 
pany, 1885, pp. 106. 

This is a delightful little volume, but its title is misleading. See Collegiate 
School. 

Boston Latin School. The prize book of the Publick Latin School in Boston. 
Boston, 1820-1824. 
ISTos. 1 (pp. 63), 2 (pp. 59), 3 (pp. 43), 4 (pp. 91), and 5 (pp. 30). They 
throw much light upon the educational doctrine and practice of the time. Of 
especial value is the article, doubtless by Benjamin Apthorp Gould, Some ac- 
count of the free schools in Boston (no. 4, pp. 3-56). 

Boston. Keport of a sub-committee of the School Committee recommending 
various improvements in the system of instruction in the grammar and 
writing schools of this city. Boston, 1828, pp. 37. 
Recites in detail the history of the first high school for girls in Boston. 

Bradford Academy. A memorial of Bradford Academy. Boston : Congre- 
gational S. S. and Publishing Society, 1870, pp. 189. 

Bradford Academy, Bradford. Am. Jouru. Ed., v. 30, pp. 595-596. From 
the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, slightly abridged. 

Buffalo. Cochran, Clement H. Outline history of the Buffalo High School. 
The Calendar [Buffalo], v. 7, pp. 1-6, March 17, 1898. 
Other historical notes and reminiscences follow in the same issue. 

Cambridge. Bradbury, William F, The Cambridge High School, history 
and catalogue, with its early history by Elbridgo Smith. Cambridge, 
Mass. : Moses King, 1882, pp. 94. 
•Mr. Smith's historical sketch, covering the period 1847-1856 (pp. 7-12), 

and Mr. Bradbury's, covering the period 1856-1882 (pp. 13-44), are full of 

interesting information. 

Cambridge. The Cambridge High School. (Harvard preparatory schools, 
no. 3.) The Harvard Register, v. 2, pp. 179-180, September, ISSO. 

Carre and Sanderson. Prospectus, rules and regulations, of Carre and San- 
derson's Seminary. Philadelphia, 1816, pp. 16. 

Cazenovia Seminary. Eddy, Lyman Aldrich. My alma mater and its early 
friends : with papers of personal, patriotic, religious, and local interest. 
New York : W. J. Hutchinson, 1884. 

Charleston. Girls' High and Normal School at Charleston, South Carolina. 
Am. Journ. Ed., v. 13, p. 621. 

Chauncy-Rall School. Gushing, Thomas. Historical sketch of Chauncy- 
Hall School, with catalogue of teachers and pupils, and appendix. 
1828 to 1894. Boston, 1895, pp. 216. 



APPENDIX C 501 

Cheshire Academy, Seton, Samuel W. Schools as they were in the United 
States sixty and seventy years ago. Am. Jouru. Ed., v. 17, pp. 555- 
560. 
Reminiscences of Cheshire Academy. 

Chicago. Wells, W. H. Public High School in Chicago. Am. Journ. Ed., 
V. 3, pp. 531-536. 

From the author's third annual report as superintendent of public schools of 
the city of Chicago, for the year 1856. 

Cincinnati, Hughes High School. The annual published by the Society of 
Alumni of the Cincinnati Hughes High School, December, 1870. 
Vol. 1. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1870, pp. 98. 
Prepared by a committee of seven members of which Mr. Sidney Omohundro 

was chaii'man. Contains valuable historical notes. 

Cincinnati, Woodicard High School. " Old Woodward," a memorial relat- 
ing to Woodward High School, 1831-1836, and Woodward College, 
1836-1851, in the city of Cincinnati. Cincinnati : Published by " Old 
Woodward " Club, 1884, pp. 315. 

Cincinnati. Woodward High School in Cincinnati. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 4, 
pp. 520-525. 

Cokesbury College. Archer, Geo. W., M.D. An authentic history of Cokes- 
bury College, with sketches of its founders and teachers. Prepared 
for and read before the Harford Historical Society. Bel Air, Md. : 
N. N. Nock, 1894, pp. 25. 

Cokesbury College. Steiner, Bernard C, Ph.D. Cokesbury College, the first 
Methodist institution for higher education. Baltimore, 1895, pp. 25. 

Collegiate School. Dunshee, Henry Webb. History of the school of the 
Reformed Protestant Dutch church in the city of New York, from 
1633 to the present time. With an introduction by Rev. Thomas 
DeWitt, D.D. New York, 1853, pp. 120. 
A second edition, revised and enlarged (pp. 20 + 284), appeared in 1883. 

Dade Institute. Public meeting of the citizens of JefPerson County, held 
at Monticello, Jeiferson County, Pla., July 2, 1839. Together with 
a detail of the causes which led to the founding of the Dade Institute. 
Tallahassee, 1839, pp. 11. 

Decatur, Illinois. Gastman, E. A. Notes on the history of the public 
schools of Decatur, Illinois, from 1851 to June 30, 1900. In Thirty- 
fifth annual report of the Board of Education (Decatur, 111., 1900), 
pp. 43-170. 
Historical sketch of the high school, by Frank Hamsher, pp. 99-105, with 

lists of graduates, etc. 



502 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Derby Academy. Rules and regulations establislied by the trustees of the 
Derby Academy. . . . Hiughani, 1856, pp. 36. 
A pamphlet containing, in addition to what is indicated above, the text of 
several interesting documents relating to the history of the school. 

Detroit. Catalogue of the teachers and alumni of the Detroit High School. 
. . . Detroit, Mich., 1893, pp. 74. 
This catalogue covers the time from the date of the establishment of the 
school, 1858, to January, 1893. 

Dorchester Grammar School. Dorchester celebration. 250th anniversary 
of the establishment of the first public school in Dorchester, June 22, 
1889. Boston, 1890, pp. 77. 
Includes Historical address by William A. Mowry, Ph.D., pp. 10-52. 

Dorchester Grammar School. The original grammar school of New England. 
The free town school of Dorchester. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 16, pp. 105- 
108. 

Dummer Academy, South Byfield. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 763-768. 

Compiled from the centennial address of Nehemiah Cleaveland, LL.D., 
1863, and from items furnished by the Rev. Ebenezer G. Parsons. It is taken 
from the Massachusetts report of 1875-76. 

Dummer Academy. Cleaveland, Nehemiah. The first century of Dummer 
Academy. A historical discourse, delivered at Newbury, Byfield 
parish, August 12, 1863. With an appendix. Boston: Nichols & 
Noyes, 1865, pp. 71 + 43. 

Dummer Academy. Herrick, Israel A, Dummer Academy, South Byfield 
Parish, Massachusetts. Education, v. 14, pp. 571-574, May, 1894. 
Historic secondary schools, first paper. 

Dummer Academy. Exercises at the 125th anniversary of Dummer Acad- 
emy at Newbury, Byfield Parish, Massachusetts, June 19, 1888. 
Address by Hon. Wm. Dummer Northend. Salem, 1888, pp. 61. 

East Maine Conference Seminary. [Webb, N. B., Editor.'] East Maine 
Conference Seminary war record. Boston, 1877, pp. 54. 

Erasmus Hall. Gunnison, Walter B. Erasmus Hall. The oldest academy 
in the state [of New York] transformed into a modern high school. 
The Brooklyn Teacher, v. 1, pp. 1-2, March, 1897- 

Friends' Academy, New Bedford. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 793-794. 

Compiled from historical sketch, with catalogue and notes, by Mr. John 
Tetlow, principal. It is taken from the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, 
slightly altered. 

Friends' Academy. Historical sketch of the Erieuds' Academy, prepared 
for the centennial year: to which is appended a presentation of the 



APPENDIX C 503 

course and methods of instruction at present pursued. New Bedford, 
1876, pp. 73. 
Georgetown College. McLaughlin, J. Fairfax, LL.D. College days at George- 
town and other papers. Philadelphia, 1899, pp. 229. 

Georgetown College. Memorial of the first centenary of Georgetown Col- 
lege, D. C, comprising a history of Georgetown University by John 
Gilmary Shea, LL.D., and an account of the centennial celebration by 
a member of the faculty. Washington: Published for the College, 
1891, pp. 15 + 480. 

Germantoion Academy. Travis, Rev. William. History of Germantown 
Academy : compiled from the minutes of the trustees. From 1760 
to 1877. Edited by Horace Wemyss Smith. Philadelphia: Ferguson 
Bros. & Co., 1882, pp. 64. 

Girard College. Arey, Henry W. The Girard College and its founder 
. • . and the will of Mr. Girard. Philadelphia, 1852, pp. 85. 

Girard College. A description of the Girard College for orphans. . . . 
Philadelphia, 1848, pp. 64. 
A report by the architect, Thomas U. Walter ; addresses by Nicholas 
Biddle and Joseph R. Chandler ; and various other papers, are included. 

Girard College. Lieber, Francis. A constitution and plan of education 
for Girard College for Orphans, with an introductory report, laid 
before the board of trustees. Philadelphia : Carey, Lea and Blauch- 
ard, 1834, pp. 227. 

Girard College. [Bupp, George P., Editor.'] 1848-1898. Semi-centennial 
of Girard College. Biographical sketch of Stephen Girard, his will, 
and other papers relating to the college. . . • Philadelphia : Girard 
College, 1898, pp. 182. 

Girard College. Westbrook, Richard B., D.D., LL.D. Girard's will and 
Girard College theology. Philadelphia: Published by the Author, 
1888, pp. 8 + 183. 
Controversial. 

Guilford, Miss L. T. The story of a Cleveland school, from 1848 to 1881. 
Written for its pupils. Cambridge, 1890, pp. 376. 

Hanover Academy. Ford, Rev. D. B. History of Hanover Academy. 
Boston, 1899, pp. 221. 
This history covers the life of the Hanover, Massachusetts, Academy, 1808- 
1892. It is rich in biographical notes. 

Hartford. Barnard, Henry, LL.D. Public high school in a graded system. 
Contributions to the history of the Public High School of Hartford, in 
a letter to the principal. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 28, pp. 225-256. 



504 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Hartford High School, History of the. Journal of Education, v. 20, p. 167. 
Boston, September 11, 1884. 

Hartford Public High School, Triennial catalogue of the. Hartford, 
Connecticut, 1891. 

Hartford Female Seminary and its founder. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 28, pp. 
65-96. 

Hartwick Seminary. Memorial volume of tlie semi-centennial anniversary 
of Hartwick Seminary, held August 21, 1866. Albany : Joel Munsell, 
1867, pp. 201. 

A large part of this publication is taken up with reprints of documents 
relating to the history of the seminary. The Historical address, by the Eev. 
Henry N. Pohlman, D.D., pp. 7-41, is full of interest. 

Haverhill Academy and High School. Bartlett, Albert L. The Haver- 
hill Academy and the Haverhill High School, 1827-1890. An 
historical sketch. Statistics by Clarence E. Kelley. Haverhill, 1890, 
pp. 227. 

Hitchcock Free High School, Brimfield. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 807- 
808. 

From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, slightly altered. Compiled from 
a sketch by the Rev. Charles M. Hyde, D.D., and items by E. W. Nor- 
wood, A.M. 

Hopkins School, Cambridge. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 745-746. 
From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, slightly abridged. 

Hopkins Grammar School, Hadley. History of the Hopkins fund, grammar 

school and academy, in Hadley, Mass. Prepared and published under 

the direction and authority of the trustees of Hopkins Academy, 1657- 

1890. Amherst, Mass., 1890, pp. 198. 

A valuable work, full of reprints of original documents and extracts from 

public records. 

Hopkins Grammar School, Hadley. Judd, Sylvester. The Hopkins founda- 
tion. The Hopkins school at Hadley. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 27, pp. 
145-156. 

Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven. The Hopkins bequest at New 
Haven. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 28, pp. 275-304. 

Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven. Bacon, Leonard Woolsey. An 
historical discourse on the two-hundredth anniversary of the founding 
of the Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, Connecticut. De- 



APPENDIX C 505 

livered before the " Hopkins Grammar School Association," July 24, 
1860. New Haven, 1860, pp. 64. 

Very iuteresting and valuable. The text of original documents is given in 
an appendix. 

Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven. Tlie Hopkins bequest at New 
Haven. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 28, pp. 275-304. 

Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven. The Hopkinsonian. Edited in the 
Hopkins Grammar School by James Isham Gardner, William Butler 
Tyler and Arthur Phelps Callahan. New Haven, Conn. : Published 
by the Editors, 1896, pp. 102. 

This student publication contains much of valuable information relating 
to the life of the school — reminiscences of old school boys, and the like. 

Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven. Willard, H. K., Compiler. Con- 
tributions to the history of the Hopkins Grammar School, New 
Haven, Conn., 1660 to 1900. Kept. Corar. Ed., 1899-1900, v. 2, 
pp. 1281-1296. 

Ipswich Female Seminary. Cowles, Rev. John P. Ipswich Female Semi- 
nary. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 593-594. From the Massachusetts 
report of 1875-76. 

Ipswich Grammar School. Hammatt, Abraham. Ipswich Grammar School. 
Extract from an address delivered on the two hundredth anniversary of 
the foundation of the grammar school in Ipswich, instituted Jan'y 11- 
21, A.D. 1650-51. The New-England Historical and Genealogical 
Register, v. 6, pp. 64-71, 159-167, January and April, 1852. 

The greater part of this extract is reproduced in the Am. Journ. Ed., v. 28, 
pp. 134-144. 

Kimball Union Academy. The general catalogue and a brief history of 
Kimball Union Academy, Plainfield, (Meriden P. 0.) N. H. Also a 
sketch of Hon. Daniel Kimball, its founder. 1815-1880. Claremont, 
N. H., 1880, pp. 323. 

King William's School. See St. Joh?i's College, Annapolis. 

King William's School. Fell, Thomas, Ph.D, LL.D. Some historical accounts 
of the founding of King William's School. . . . Annapolis, 1894, 
pp. 114. 

Lawrence Academy. Hammond, Eev. Charles. Lawrence Academy, Groton, 
Mass. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 2, pp. 49-60. 

Mr. Hammond's sketch of Lawrence Academy, Groton, in the Massachusetts 
report of 1875-76, though apparently based on this article, differs from it suffi- 
ciently to constitute an independent account. 



506 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Lawrence Academy. The jubilee of Lawrence Academy, at Groton, Mass., 
July 12, 1854. New-York, 1855, pp. 76. 

Contains a discourse, partly historical, by the Rev. James Means, pp. 11- 
41. Bound in with the copy in the Library of Congress is a Catalogue of the 
officers and students of Lawrence Academy, from the time of its incorporation. 
Groton, Mass., 1855, pp. 108. 

Leicester Academy prior to 1800. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 28, pp. 798-800. 

Leicester Academy, Leicester. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 777-780. 

From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76. Sketch by E. A. Hubbard, Agent 
of the Board of Education, with extracts from the History of the Academy, by 
Emory Washburn, LL.D. 

Leicester Academy. The centenary of Leicester Academy. Worcester, 
Mass., 1884," pp. 117. 
Contains historical address by the Hon. "William W. Rice, reminiscences, 
and historical supplement. 

Leicester Academy. Washburn, Emory. Brief sketch of the history of 
Leicester Academy. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1855, 
pp. 7 + 158. 

" Log College.^'' Alexander, Archibald, D.D., Editor. Biographical sketches 
of the founder, and principal alumni of the Log College. Together 
with an account of the revivals of religion, under their ministry. 
Princeton, N. J., 1845, pp. 369. 

Lowell, Massachusetts. Whitcomb, Arthur K. The schools of Lowell. 

Historical sketch. Lowell Daily Courier, February 24, 1900, pp. 5 

and 8. 
Contains considerable information relating to the early histor}' of the 
Lowell High School. 

Lowville Academy semi-centennial anniversary, celebrated at Lowville, 
N. Y., July 21st and 22d, 1858. Lowville: Published by the Home 
Committee, 1859, pp. 133. 
Contains Historical address, by Franklin B. Hough, pp. 51-88. 

Maplewood Institute, Pittafleld. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 603-604. Frbm 
the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, slightly altered. 

Michigan Military Academy. Sudduth, H. T. The INIichigan Military 
Academy. The Interior, July 23, 1896, pp. 957-959. 

Milton Academy. Thacher, Thomas. A discourse delivered at Milton, 
September 9, 1807 ; being the day appointed for the dedication of the 
academy in that place. Published by request of the trustees of the 
academy. Dedham, 1807, pp. 23. 



APPENDIX C 507 

Monson Academy. Discourses and speeches, delivered at the celebration of 
the semi-centeimial auuiversary of Monson Academy, Monsou, Mass., 
July 18th and 19th, 1854. Published by the trustees. New York, 
1855, pp. 90. 
Contains the Historical discourse by Charles Hammond, pp. 7-40, and dis- 
course on The relations of commerce to literature, by Richard S. Storrs, Jr., 
pp. 41-73. 

Monson Academy. Hammond, Rev. Charles. Monson Academy, Hampden 
County, Massachusetts. Am. Jouru. Ed., v. 17, pp. 563-573. 
This account is reproduced in a somewhat altered form in the Massachusetts 
report of 1875-76. 

Mount Holyoke Seminary. Nutting, Mary 0. Mount Holyoke Female 
Seminary, South Hadley. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 589-592. 
From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, abridged. 

Mount Holyoke Seminary . Stow, Mrs. Sarah D. (Locke). History of Mount 
Holyoke Seminary, South Hadley, Mass., during its first half century, 
1837-1887. Published by the Seminary, 1887, pp. 12 + 372. 
Chapters 1-3 contain a brief sketch of the earlier history of the education 

of women in the United States. 

Mount St. Vincent Academy. Brunowe, Marion J. A famous convent 
school. New "York: The Meany Company, 1897, pp. 153. 
An account of the Academy Mount St. Vincent-on-the-Hudson (Sisters of 
Charity). 

Mount St. Vincent Academy. A descriptive and historical sketch of the 
Academy of Mount St. Vincent on-the-Hudson, New York City. 
1847-1884. New York : D. Appleton and Company, 1884, pp. 167- 

Mount Vernon School. Abbott, Jacob. A description of the Mount Vernon 
School in 1832. Being a brief account of the internal arrangements 
and plans of the institution. Addressed to a new scholar. (Not pub- 
lished.) Boston, [1832,] pp. 72. 

Nazareth Hall. Eeichel, Rev. Levin T. A history of Nazareth Hall, from 
1755 to 1855: and of the reunions of its former pupils, in 1854 and 
1855. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Company, 1855. 
This work has appeared in a later and enlarged edition (1869, pp. 62 + 57 

+ 20 + 118 + 74 + 25). 

Newbury Seminary. Bailey, Horace W. A souvenir of the seminary memo- 
rial window, including a history ... of Old Newbury Seminary. St. 
Johnsbury, 1901, pp. 101 + 6. 

New Hampton Institution. Catalogue of the officers and members of the 
Social Fraternity of the Academical and Theological Institution at New 
Hampton, N. H. Pounded a.d. 1831. Boston, 1850, [not paged.] 



508 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

New York Free Academy. Addresses delivered upon the occasion of the 
opening of the Free Academy, January 27, 1849. New York, 1849, 
pp. 39. 

New York Free Academy. Report on the organization of the Free Academy. 
N. p., 1851, pp. 24. 

New York High-School Society. Annual reports of the trustees of the High- 
School Society, in tlie city of New York. 

The first of these was issued, at New York, in 1825. I have seen them 
through the fourth, issued in 1828 "pursuant to the act of incorporation." 
There may have been two or three later numbers. 

New Salem Academy. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 789-790. 

From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, slightly abridged. Compiled from 
a sketch by E. E. Stratton, M.A. 

Newton. Fewkes, Jesse Walter, Ph.D. The Newton High School. The 
Harvard Register, v. 3, pp. 139-142, March, 1881. 

Notre Lame University. Lyons, Joseph A., Compiler. Silver jubilee of 
the University of Notre Dame, June 23rd, 1869. Second edition. . . . 
Chicago : E. B. Myers & Company, 1869, pp. 344. 
Contains an account of the establishment of tlie Manual Labor School 

(1844), and of St. Mary's Academy (1855). 

Norwich Free Academy. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 2, pp. 665-700. 

Norwich Free Academy. The New Englander, v. 15, pp. 428-447, 
August, 1857. 

Norwich Free Academy. Addresses delivered at the dedication of the Slater 
memorial building, at Norwich, Connecticut, Thursday, November 4, 
1886. By Professor John Putnam GuUiver and President Daniel Coit 
Gilman. Cambridge, 1887, numbered pp. 49. 

Norwich Free Academy. Free Academy at Norwich. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 3, 
pp. 191-212. 

Noncich Free Academy. Gulliver, Rev. J. P. Address at the dedication of 
the Norwich Free Academy, Oct. 1856. The Weekly Courier for Nov. 
25, 1856. 

Norwich University. Ellis, William A., Compiler. Norwich University. 
He^r history, her graduates, her roll of honor. Concord, N. H., 1898. 

Oxford Academy. Curtis, Hon. 0. H., Editor. The Oxford Academy cen- 
tennial ... at Oxford, Clienango County, N. Y., June 28, 29,1894. 
Published by the General Committee, 1895. 
Contains Historical discourse by the editor, pp. 35-58. 



APPENDIX C 509 

Oxford Academy. The Oxford Academy jubilee, held at Oxford, Chenango 
County, N. Y., August 1st and 2d, 1854. New York, 1856, pp. 132. 

Historical reminiscences by William H. Hyde, Esq. , pp. 35-62. 
Packer Collegiate Institute for Girls. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 1, pp. 579-586. 
Peirce Academy, Middleborough. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 791-792. 

From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76. 

Pe?imi/lvania, University of. Montgomery, Thomas Harrison, A history 
of the University of Pennsylvania from its foundation to a.d. 1770; 
including biographical sketches. . . . Philadelphia : George W. Jacobs 
& Co., 1900, pp. 600. 
Especially rich in biographical material. 

Pennsylvania, University of Thorpe, Francis Newton, Ph.D., Editor. 

Benjamin Erauklin and the University of Pennsylvania. Circ. Inf. 

no. 2, 1892, pp. 450. 
Chapter 2 contains a valuable account of Franklin's ideas of education as 
seen in his writings. A bibliography is given in chapter 27. 

Philadelphia. Edmonds, Franklin Spencer. History of the Central High 
School of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippiucott Company, 
1902, pp. 14, 7-394. 

A notable addition to the number of our school histories ; an attractive 
book, full of interesting information. 

Philadelphia. The semi-centennial celebration of the Central High School 
of Philadelphia. . . . Published by the Semi-centennial Committee, 
1888, pp. 4 + 3-53 + 34. 
Contains addresses, historical sketch by George H. Cliff, and numerous 

portraits. 

Phillips Academy, in Andover, The constitution of. Andover, 1828, pp. 15. 

Phillips Andover. Bancroft, Cecil F. P., LL.D. Phillips Academy, Andover. 
Education, v. 14, pp. 629-632, June, 1894. (Historic secondary 
schools, second paper.) 

Phillips Andover. Coy, Edward G. Phillips Academy, Andover. The 
New Englander, v. 44, pp. 571-586, July, 1885. 

Phillips Andover. Hammond, Eev. C. Phillips Academy at Andover. 
Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 669-776. 
From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, slightly abridged. 

Phillips Andover. Park, Eev. William E. The earlier annals of Phillips 
Academy. [N. p., n. d.], pp. 51. 

Phillips Andover. Thwing, Charles F. Phillips Academy at Andover. 
The Harvard Register, v. 3, no. 4, pp. 205-209, April,' 1881. 



510 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Phillips Exeter. Bell, Charles H. Phillips Exeter Academy ia New 
Hampshire, a historical sketch. Exeter, N. H., 1883, pp. 104. 
Interesting and valuable. 

Phillips Exeter. Catalogue of the officers and students of Phillips Exeter 
Academy, 1783-1883. Boston, 1883. 

Phillips Exeter. Cunningham, Frank H. Familiar sketches of the Phillips 
Exeter Academy and surroundings. Boston : James R. Osgood and 
Company, 1883, pp. 14 + 360. 
A very interesting volume, full of information, reminiscence, and wholesome 

school sentiment. 

Phillips Exeter. Exercises at the centennial celebration of the founding of 
Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, June 20 and 21, 1883. 
Exeter, N. H., 1SS4, pp. 83. 

Phillips Exeter. Kidder, Camillus George. The Phillips Exeter Academy. 
(Harvard preparatory schools, no. 1.) The Harvard Register, v. 1, 
pp. 109-111, June, 1880. 

Phillips Exeter. Peabody, Rev. Andrew P., D.D. Phillips Exeter Academy. 
New Englander and Yale Review, v. 44, pp. 436-446. 

Port Chester Institute. Starr, 0. Winthrop. Historical sketch of the Port 

Chester Institute established at Yonkers, Westchester Co., New York, 

' in 1854. Removed to Port Chester in 1874. . . . [N. p.,n. d.], pp. 16. 

Providence. A brief sketch of the establishment of the high school. Provi- 
dence, together with the dedicatory exercises of the new building. 
Providence, 1878, pp. 129. 

Providence. Hoyt, David W. Relation of the high school to the com- 
munity. Education, v. 6, pp. 429-441, March, 1886. 
Relates mainly to the high school of Providence, Rhode Island. Contains 
interesting facts and statistics. 

Rensselaer Polytechiic Institute. Ricketts, Palmer C. History of the 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1824-1894. New York: John 
Wiley and Sons, 1895, pp. 10 + 193. 
Contains notes on the relation of the Institute to the work of Fellenberg 

and to the later development of experimental methods in this country. 

Round Rill School. Bellows, Rev. Henry W., D.D. The Round Hill School. 
The Harvard Register, v. 3, no. 1, pp. 3-7, January, 1881. 

Round Hill School. Cogswell, Joseph G., and Bancroft, George. Pro- 
spectus of a school to be estabhshed at Round Hill, Northampton, 
Massachusetts. [Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1823], pp. 20. 

Round Hill School. See Cogswell, Joseph Green, under Biography. 



APPENDIX C 511 

Uoxbury Latin School. Dillaway, C. K. A history of the grammar school, 

or, "The free schoole of 1645 in Roxburie." With biographical 

sketches of the ministers of the First Church, and other trustees. 

Roxbury : John Backup, 1860, pp. 8, 7-202. 

Full of excerpts from original documents ; and accompanied by a fac-simile 

of an early contract with a schoolmaster. 

Roxhury Latin School. Dillaway, Charles K. The Roxbury Latin School. 
(Plarvard preparatory schools, no. 2.) The Harvard Register, v. 2, 
pp. 160-161, August, 1880. 

Roxbury Latin School. The Free School at Roxbury. Am. Journ. Ed., 
V. 37, pp. 121-126. 
Brief notices of the Free School in Charlestown, Public Schools in Water- 
town, Free School in Newberry, Free School in Duxbury, and Grammar or 
Free School of Ipswich, follow on pp. 127-128. 

Rutland County Grammar School. Report of the proceedings commemorat- 
ing the one-hundredth anniversary of the estabUshment of a chartered 
school, known at diiferent periods as the Rutland County Grammar 
School, Castleton Seminary, and State Normal School, in Castleton, 
Vermont. 1787-1887. Rutland, 1888, pp. 95 + addenda. 
Historical sketches and documentary material are included. 

St. Francis Xavier College. The College of St. Francis Xavier. A memorial 
and a retrospect. 1847-1897. New York, [n. d.], pp. 273. 
Edited by a committee consisting of Chas. G. Herbermann, LL.D., John E. 
Cahalan, A.M., and John J. Wynne, S.J. 

St. John's College, Annapolis. 1789-1889. Commemoration of the one hun- 
dredth anniversary of St. John's College. Published by the Alumni 
Association. Baltimore, 1890, pp. 175. 

St. John's College., Fordham. Taaffe, Thomas Gaffney. A history of St. 
John's College, Fordham, N. Y. New York : The Cathohc Publica- 
tion Society Co., 1891, pp. 8 + 154. 

St. Jjouis. Drake, Charles D. Address, delivered March 24, 1856, at the 
dedication of the first public high school building erected in the city 
of St. Louis. St. Louis, 1856. 

St. Louis. Morgan, H. H. The justification of the public high school. 
Rept. Comr. Ed. for 1899-1900, v. 1, pp. 629-642. 
Reprinted from the St. Louis school report for 1876-77. The author was 
principal of the St. Louis high school. General arguments and particular 
facts relating to the St. Louis high school are included. 

St. Mark's School. The consecration of the chapel and dedication of the 
new school building, October 21, 1891. Witii sermon and addresses. 
Cambridge : John Wilson and Sou, 1892, pp. 66. 



512 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Si. Mary's Academic Institute. Souvenir of the fiftieth anniversary, or 
golden jubilee of St. Mary's Academic Institute, St. Mary of the 
Woods, Vigo Co., Ind., (June 24, 1891). By a former pupil. New 
York: Benziger Brothers, 1891, pp. 252. 

St. Paul's College. An account of the grammar school, or junior depart- 
ment, of St. Paul's College. New York, 1842, pp. 36. 

St. Paul's School. Lamberton, James M. An account of St. Paul's School 
[Concord, New Hampshire]. Also, address delivered before the 
alumni association of St. Paul's School, May 26, 1886. [N. p.], 
privately printed, 1898, pp. 130. 

San Francisco. Report of the committee on the San Prancisco High School. 
The California Teacher, v. 1, pp. 265-270, May, 1864. 

Scudder, Horace E. A group of classical schools. Harper's New Monthly 
Magazine, v. 55, pp. 562-575, 704-716, September and October, 1877- 
A highly interesting essay, treating of the following schools : The two 
Phillips Academies, the Adams Academy at Qiiincy, the Boston Latin School, 
the Williston Seminary at Easthampton, and St. Paul's School at Concord, 
New Hampshire. 

Shattuck School (corporate name, "The Bishop Seabury Mission"), Pari- 
bault, Minn. Its history, its needs, and its future. [N. p., n. d.], 
pp. 32. 

South Carolina Military Academi/. Thomas, John Peyre. The history of 
the South Carolina Military Academy, with appendixes. Charleston, 
S. C. : Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co., 1893, pp. 12 + 579. 

Springfield, Massachusetts. Chapin, Charles Wells. History of the " Old 
High School " on School Street, Springfield, Massachusetts, from 
1828 to 1840, with a personal history of the teachers, also the names 
of 265 pupils, with their history in part, with portraits, and a sketch 
of the building. Springfield, Mass., 1890, pp. 129. 

Thetford Academy. Eaton, General Joh!% Editor. Thetford Academy, 
Thetford, Vermont. Seventy-fifth anniversary and reunion. Thurs- 
day, June 28, 1894. Concord, N. H., 1895, pp. 208. 
The Historical discourse, by the Pie v. Carlos Slafter, is included, pp. 19-49. 

Troy Female Seminary. See WiLLard, Emma, under Biography. 

United States Military Academy. The Military Academy at "West Point 
Am. Journ. Ed., v. 13, pp. 17-48. 

United States Military Academy. Boynton, Captain Edward C. History of 
West Point . . . and the origin and progress of the United States 
Military Academy. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1863, pp. 
18 + 408. 



APPENDIX C 513 

United States Military Academy. Park, Koswell. A sketch of the history 
and topography of West Poiut and the U. S. Military Academy. 
Philadelphia : Henry Perkins, 1840, pp. 140. 

United States Naval Academy. Benjamin, Park. The United States Naval 
Academy. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900, pp. 11 + 4S6. 

United States Naval Academy. Marshall, Edward Chauncey. History of 
the United States Naval Academy, with biographical sketches. . . . 
New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 156. 

United States Naval Academy. Soley, Professor James Sussell. Historical 
sketch of the United States Naval Academy. Prepared by direction 
of Rear-Admiral C. R. P. Rodgers, U. S. N., Superintendent U. S. 
Naval Academy, for the Department of Education at the International 
Exhibition, 1876. Washington, 1876, pp. 348. 

Uxbridge Academy. Mowry, William A,, Ph.D. The Uxbridge Academy, 
a brief history, with a biographical sketch of J. Mason Macomber, 
A.M., M.D., Preceptor. Boston: The Everett Press Company, 1897, 
pp. 14 + 151. 

Virginia Military Institute at Lexington. Am. Jouru. Ed., v. 23, pp. 825- 

828. 

Virginia Military Institute. Walker, Charles D. Memorial, Virginia Mili- 
tary Institute. Biographical sketches of the graduates and eleves of 
the Virginia Military Institute who fell during the war between the 
states. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1875, pp. 585. 
No general account of the history of the school is given in this book. 

Virginia, University of. Adams, Herbert B., Ph.D. Thomas Jefferson and 
the University of Virginia. Circ. Inf. no. 1, 1888. Am. Ed. Hist, 
no. 2, pp. 308. 
Bibliographies accompany chapters 14 and 23. 

Visitation Academy. Lathrop, George Parsons, and Lathrop, Eose Haw- 
thorne. A story of courage. Annals of the Georgetown Convent of 
the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. From manuscript records. 
Boston : Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1894, pp. 13 + 380. 

Washington. The Eeview Annual. Washington High School, lS89-'90. 
Washington, D. C, 1890. 
The first students' annual of the school. Contains some historical notes. 

Western Female Seminary. Memorial. Twenty-fifth anniversary of the 
Western Eemale Seminary, Oxford, Ohio, 1880. Published by the 
alumuse. Indianapolis, 1881, pp. 231. 

33 



514 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Westfield Academy, Westfield. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 786-788. 

Compiled from historical address of tlie Hon. Wm. G. Bates, on the laying 
of the corner stone of the new building, July 31, 1857. It is abridged from 
the Massachusetts report of 1875-76. 

Westford Academy. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 781-785. 
From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, slightly abridged. 

West Neioton English and Classical School. An illustrated biographical 
catalogue of the principals, teachers, and students of the West Newton 
English and Classical School, West Newton, Mass., 1854-1893. In- 
cluding an account of the re-unions November 15, 1871, and June 21, 
1893. Compiled by a former pupil. Boston : Rand Avery Supply 
Co., 1895, pp. 176. 

Westtown Boarding School. A brief history of Westtown Boarding School 
with a general catalogue of officers, students, etc. Compiled chiefly 
from minutes of the committee in charge, and the records preserved at 
the institution. Third edition. Philadelphia, 1884, pp. 433. 
The first edition appeared in 1872. 

Westtown Boarding School. Dewees, Watson W. and Sarah B. History 

of Westtown Boarding School, 1799-1899. Published under the 

auspices of the Westtown Alumni Association. [N. p.], 1899, pp. 204. 

Valuable for its account of the ideas which led to the establishment of the 

school, and the glimpses it gives of school life at different periods. 

Wheaton Female Seminary, Norton. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 600-602. 
From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, slightly altered. 

Wilbraham Academy. Gill, Rev. Benj., A.M. Wesleyan Academy, Wilbra- 
ham. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 795-798. Erom the Massachusetts 
report of 1875-76, abridged. 

Wilbraham Academy. Sherman, Rev. David, D.D. History of the Wesleyan 
Academy at Wilbraham, Mass., 1817-1890. Boston : The McDonald 
& Gill Company, 1893, pp. 500. 

William and Mary, College of. Adams, Herbert B., Ph.D. The College of 
William and Mary : A contribution to the history of higher education. 
Circ. Inf. no. 1, 1887- Am. Ed. Hist. no. 1, pp. 89. 
Touches here and there on secondary education. A full bibliography is 

given in the appendix. 

Williatn Penn Charter School. William Penn's Charters of ye Publick School 
founded by Charter in ye Town and County of Philadelphia in Pensil- 
vania, 1701, 1708, 1711. Philadelphia [1880?], pp. 31. 

Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 2, pp. 173- 
175. 



APPENDIX C 515 

Williston Seminary, Easthampton. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 803-806. 
From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, slightly altered. 

Williston Seminary. Baccalaureate sermon, oration and addresses delivered 
at the semi-centenuial celebration of Williston Seminary, Easthamp- 
ton, Mass., June 14-17, 1891. Springfield, Mass., [n. d.], pp. 95. 

Williston Seminary. Keep, Robert P., Ph.D. Williston Seminary. New 
Englander and Yale Review, v. 44, pp. 265-279, March, 1885. 
A brief bibliography is given on the first page of this article. 

Williston Seminary. Sawyer, Joseph N. [Compiler]. Williston Seminary, 
Easthampton, Mass. Alumni records from 1842 to 1874. Springfield, 
Mass., 1875, pp. 366. 

Worcester. Roe, Alfred S. Worcester Classical and English High School. 
A record of forty-seven years. Worcester, Mass. : Published by the 
Author, 1892, pp. 167- 

Worcester Academy, Worcester. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 799-802. 
From the Massachusetts report of 1875-76, abridged. 

Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science. Addresses of inau- 
guration and dedication, Worcester, November 11, 1868. . . . Wor- 
cester, 1869, pp. 132. 
Contains memorial notices of John Boynton, Esq., and the Hon. Ichabod 

Washburn. 



IV. Biography 

Adams, John. The story of John Adams, a New England schoolmaster. 

By M. E. B. and H. G. B. New York : Charles Scribuer's Sons, 

1900, pp. 11 + 275. 
The story is well told, and makes an important contribution to the history 
of Phillips Andover Academy. 

Bailey, Ebenezer. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 12, pp. 428-452. 

Contains an account of the girls' high school which Mr. Bailey carried on in 
Boston after the public high school for girls had been closed. 

Billiart, Julia. Life of the Reverend Mother Julia, foundress and first 
superior of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur. Translated from 
the French. With tlie history of the order in the United States. 
New York : The Catholic Publication Society, [1871,] pp. 353. 

Boucher, Jonathan. Ford, Worthington Chauncey, Editor. Letters of 
Jonathan Boucher to George Washington. Brooklyn, N. Y. : His- 
torical Printing Club, 1899, pp. 53. 



516 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Caldwell, Joseph. Autobiography of Rev. Joseph Caldwell, D.D., first 

president of the University of North Carolina. North Carolina Uui- 

versitv Magazine, v. 9, pp. 1-25, 65-93, August and September, 

1859." 

Contains valuable notes on grammar-school teaching in New Jersey just after 

the Revolution. 

Cheever^i Ezekiel. [Barnard, Henry.] Biography of Ezekiel Cheever, with 
notes on the early free, or grammar schools of New England. Am. 
Journ. Ed., v. 1, pp. 297-314. 
This article was, I believe, reprinted in pamphlet form. It is reproduced in 

the Am. Journ. Ed., v. 12, pp, 530-549, and a considerable portion of it, 

again. Idem, v. 27, pp. 67-76. 

Cheever, Ezekiel. Eldridge, E. D. A short sketch of the life and character 
of Ezekiel Cheever ... by a lineal descendant. [N. p.], 1900, pp. 3. 

Cheever, Ezekiel. Hassam, John T. Ezekiel Cheever and some of his de- 
scendants. The New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, 
V. 33, pp. 164-202, April, 1879. 
This is the standard biography of the great schoolmaster. 

Cogswell, Joseph Green. The life of Joseph Green Cogswell. Cambridge, 
Mass. : Privately printed, 1874. 
Contains notes on the Round Hill School. 

Corlett, Elijah. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 743-744. 

Grant, Miss Z. P. Cowles, Rev. John P. Miss Z. P. Grant — Mrs, Wil- 
liam B. Bannister. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 611-624. With some 
account of the schools for girls at Derby and Ipswich. 

Griscom, John. Griscom, John H., M.D. Memoir of John Griscom, LL.D., 
late professor of chemistry and natural philosophy ; with an account of 
the New York High School ; Society for the Prevention of Pauperism ; 
the House of Refuge ; and other institutions. Compiled from an 
autobiography, and other sources. New York : Robert Carter and 
Brothers, 1859, pp 427- 

Hale, Nathan. Partridge, William Ordway. Nathan Hale, the ideal patriot. 
A study of character. . . . New York and London : Funk & Wag- 
nails Company, 1902, pp. 134. 
Tiie author is the well-known sculptor, whose statue of Hale is to be the 

lasting memorial of the patriot schoolmaster at the home of his alma mater, 

Yale University. 

Hammond, Charles. Smith, Elbridge. Charles Hammond and academy life. 
Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 18-57. 
Relates chiefly to Mouson Academy. 



APPENDIX C 517 

Hart, John S., Principal of the Philadelphia High School. Am. Journ. Ed., 
V. 5, pp. 91-106. 
A biograpliical sketch, containing interesting notes on the history of the 
Philadelphia school. 

Kingshury, John, and the Young Ladies' High School. Am. Journ. Ed., 
V. 5, pp. 9-34. 

Moody, Samuel. Samuel Moody and the Dummer School. Am. Journ. Ed., 
V. 28, pp. 785-792. 

Muhlenberg, William Augustus. Ayres, Anne. The life and work of Wil- 
liam Augustus Muhlenberg. New York : Harper & Brothers, 1880, 
pp. 14 + 524. 

Partridge, Alden. Alden Partridge. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 13, pp. 49-64, 

683-688. 
An account of his American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy is 
given in the same volume, pp. 65-72. 

Phillips, John. John Phillips. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 6, pp. 75-80. 

A biographical sketch, with notes on the history of the Phillips Academy at 
Exeter. 

Phillips, Samuel, Jr. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 6, pp. 66-74. 

A biographical sketch, with notes on the founding of the Phillips Academy 
at Andover. 

Phillips, Samuel. Taylor, Eov. John L. A memoir of His Honor, Samuel 
Phillips, LL.D. Boston: Congregational Board of Publication, 
1856. 
A very full review and summary of its contents is to be found in the N. A. 

Rev., V. 87, pp. 119-142, July, 1858. 

Thayer, Gideon F. Gushing, Thomas. Memoir of Gideon F. Thayer. New 
England Historical and Genealogical Register for April, 1865. 

Thayer, Gideon F. Gideon F. Thayer. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 4, pp. 613-621. 

Tisdale, Master, and the Lebanon School. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 28, pp. 793- 
797. 

Tompson, Master. Sibley, John langdon, A.M. Memoir of Master Tompson. 
Am. Journ. Ed., v. 30, pp. 747-751. 

Willard, Mrs. Emma. Emma Willard and her pupils or fifty years of Troy 
Female Seminary, 1822-1872. New York: Published by Mrs. 
Russell Sage, [1898,] pp. 895. 
An attractive and highly interesting volume. 



518 THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 

Willard, Mrs. Emma. Fowler, Prof. Henry. Educational services of Mrs. 
Emma Willard. Am. Journ. Ed., v. 6, pp. 125-168. 

Williston, Samuel. Tyler, W. S. A discourse commemorative of Hon. 
Samuel Williston, delivered . . . September 13, 1874. . . . Spring- 
field, Mass., 1874, pp. 85. 



V. Periodicals — Devoted to Secondary Education 

The Academy. A journal of secondary education. Issued monthly under 
the auspices of the Associated Academic Principals of ttie State of 
New York. Vols. 1-7- 
George A. Bacon, Publisher, Syracuse, N. Y., and Boston, Mass., 1886-1892. 

School and College. Devoted to secondary and higher education. Ray 
Greene Huling, Editor. 
One volume only, Boston, January-December, 1892. 

The School Eeview. A journal of secondary education. Jacob Gould 
Schurman and Charles Herbert Thurber, Editors 1893-95 ; Charles 
Herbert Thurber, Editor 1896-1900; [George Herbert Locke, Editor 
since 1901]. Vols. 1 - (current publication). 
Ithaca and Hamilton, N. Y., and Chicago, 111., 1893- . 



APPENDIX D 

THE FIRST PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE 160 
CITIES NOW HAVING OVER 25,000 POPULATION ^ 







Date of 
first open- 


Date of es- 


Date when H. S. 




Population 


tablishment 
of a regular 


began to receive 
pupils by pro- 




of City 


Public 


2 to 4 year 


motion upon 




1900. 


High 

Rphnnl 


course in 


completion of a 






the High 


6 to 8 year ele- 






(j^iXKjyJit 


School. 


mentary course. 


New York, N. Y. . . 


3.437,202 


1849 


1849 


1849 


Chicago, 111. . . 






i;698,575 


1856 


1856 


1881 


Philadelphia, Pa. 






1,293,697 


1838 


1839 




St. Louis, Mo. . 






575,238 


1853 


1853 


1853 


Boston, Mass. . 






560,892 


1634 






Baltimore, Md. . 






508,957 








Cleveland, Ohio 






381,768 


1846 


1816 


1846 


Buffalo, N. Y. . 






352,387 


1854 


1860 


1861 


San Francisco, Cal 






342,782 








Cincinnati, Ohio 






325,902 


1847 


1847 


1847 


Pittsburg, Pa. . 






321,616 


1854 


1854 


1854 


New Orleans, La. 






287,104 


1843 


1843 


1843 


Detroit, Mich. . 






285,704 


1844 


1858 


1858 


Milwaukee, Wis. 






285,315 


1868 


1868 


1868 


Washington, D. C. 






278,718 


1877 


1877 


1877 


Newark, N. J. . 






246,070 


1854 


1854 


1854 


Jersey City, N. J. 






206,483 


1872 


1872 ■ 


1872 


Louisville, Ky. . 






204,731 


1856 


1856 


1856 


Minneapolis, Minn. 






202,718 


1865 


1865 


1865 


Providence, R- I. 






175,597 


1843 


1843 


1843 


Indianapolis, Ind. 






169,164 


1864 


1864 


1864 


Kansas City, Mo. 






163,752 


1867 


1869 




St. Paul, Minn. . 






163,065 


1865 


1865 


1865 


Rochester, N. Y. 






162,608 


18-59 


1859 


1859 


Denver, Colo. 






133,859 


1874 


1874 


1876 


Toledo, Ohio . . 






131,822 


1849 


1849 


1850 


Allegheny, Pa. . 






129,896 








Columbus, Ohio 






125,560 








Worcester, Mass. 






118,421 


i824 


1824 


1883 


Syracuse, N. Y. 






108,374 


1855 


1855 


1855 


New Haven, Conn. 




108,027 


1859 


1863 


1859 


Paterson, N. J. . . 




105,171 


1854 


1875 


1854 



1 Prepared (1902) by the Bureau of Education, and kindly furnished, in 
MS. copy, for publicatiou in this work. 



520 



THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 







Date of 
first open- 


Date of es- 


Date when H. S. 






tablishment 


began to receive 




Population 


of a regular 


pupils by pro- 




of City 


Public 


2 to 4 year 


motion upon 




1900. 


High 

Rr-hnnl 


course in 


completion of a 






the High 


6 to 8 year ele- 






OL'llUUl* 


School. 


mentary course. 


Fall River, Mass. . . 


104,863 








St. Joseph, Mo. . 






102,979 


1866 


1866 


1866 


Omaha, Nebr. . 






102,555 


1871 


1871 


1872 


Los Angeles, Cal. 






102,479 








Memphis, Tenn. 






102,320 


1870 


isVo 


1870 


Scranton, Pa. 






102,026 


1858 


1875 


1877 


Lowell, Mass. . 






94,969 


1831 


1852 


1831 


Albany, N. Y. . 






94,151 


1868 


1868 


1869 


Cambridge, Mass. 






91,886 


1838 


1838 


1839 


Portland, Ore. . 






90,426 


1869 


1869 


1869 


Atlanta, Ga. . . 






89,872 


1872 


1872 


1873 


Grand Rapids, Micl 


1. 




87,565 


1859 


1859 


1859 


Dayton, Ohio . 






85,333 


1850 


1850 


1850 


Richmond, Va. . 






85,050 


1872 


1872 


1872 


Nashville, Tenn. 






80,865 


1855 


1855 


1855 


Seattle, Wash. . 






80,671 


1883 


1885 


. 1883 


Hartford, Conn. 






79,850 


1847 


1857 


1847 


Reading, Pa. . . 






78,961 


1852 


1852 


1853 


Wilmington, Del. 






76,508 


1852 


1872 


1872 


Camden, N. J. . 






75,935 


1891 


1891 


1891 


Trenton, N. J. . 






73,307 


1874 


1874 




Bridgeport, Conn. 






70,996 








Lynn, Mass. . . 






68,513 


1849 


i852 


isso 


Oakland, Cal. . 






66,960 


1870 


1870 


1870 


Lawrence, Mass. 






62,559 


1849 


1849 


1849 


New Bedford, Mass 






62,442 


1827 


1827 


1850 


Des Moines, Iowa. 






62,139 


1864 


1864 




Springfield, Mass. 






62,059 


1841 


1841 


1887 


Somerville, Mass. 






61,643 


1852 


1858 


1858 


Troy, N. Y. . . 






60,651 


1854 


1858 


1854 


Hoboken, N. J. . 






59,364 


1870 


1894 


1870 


Evansville, Ind. 






59,007 








Manchester, N. H. 






56,987 








Utica, N. Y. . . 






56,383 


1854 


ises 


i868 


Peoria, 111. . . 






56,100 


1858 


1858 


1859 


Charleston, S. C. 






55,807 








Savannah, Ga. . 






54,244 


1868 


i868 


1868 ^ 


Salt Lake City, Utah 




53,531 


1853 


1853 


1890 


San Antonio, Tex. 




58,321 


1879 


1879 


1879 


Duluth, Minn. . . 




52,969 


1872 


1874 


1876 


Erie, Pa 




52,733 


1866 


1866 


1866 


Elizabeth, N. J. . 




52,130 


1874 


1874 


1874 


Wilkesbarre, Pa. . 




51,721 


1890 


1890 


1890 


Kansas City, Kan. . 




51,418 


1886 


1886 


1886 


Harrisburg, Pa. 




50,167 


1837 


1850 


1854 


Portland, Me. . . 




50,145 


1821 


1821 


1821 


Yonkers, N. Y. . . 




47,931 


1882 


1882 


1882 



APPENDIX D 



521 







Date of 
first open- 


Date of es- 


Date when H. S. 




Population 


tablishment 
of a regular 


began to receive 
pupils by pro- 




of City 


Public 


2 to 4 year 


motion upon 




1900. 


High 
School. 


course in 


completion of a 






the High 


6 to 8 year ele- 








School. 


mentary course. 


Norfolk, Va 


46,624 


1858 


1896 


1896 


Waterbury, Conn. 






45,859 


1851 


1851 


1851 


Holyoke, Mass. . 






45,712 


1852 


1864 


1866 


Fort Wayne, Ind. 






45,115 


1861 


1861 


1861 


Youngstown, Ohio 






44,885 








Houston, Tex. . 






44,633 


1877 


i877 


i878 


Covington, Ky. . 






42,938 


1865 


1865 


1865 


Akron, Oliio . . 






42,728 








Dallas, Tex. . . 






42,638 


i885 


i885 


1885 


Saginaw, Mich. . 






42,345 








Lancaster, Pa. . 






41,459 


1849 


i849 


1850 


Lincoln, Nebr. . 






40,169 


1873 


1892 


1873 


Brockton, Mass. 






40,063 


1864 


1865 


1864 


Binghamton, N. Y. 






39,647 


1842 


1861 


1861 


Augusta, Ga. 






39,441 


1875 


1875 




Pawtucket, R. I. 






39,281 


1855 


1855 


i874 


Altoona, Pa. . . 






38,973 


1868 


1875 


1876 


Wheeling, W. Va. 






38,878 


1897 


1897 


1897 


Mobile, Ala. . . 






38,469 


1883 


1883 


1883 


Birmingham, Ala. 






38,415 


1883 


1883 


1883 


Little Rock, Ark. 






38,307 








Springfield, Ohio 






38,253 


i856 


i856 


1856 


Galveston, Tex. . 






37,789 


1881 


1881 


1881 


Tacoma, Wash. 






37,714 


1875 


1883 


1883 


Haverhill, Mass. 






37,175 








Spokane, Wash. 






36,848 


i885 


1886 


1887 


Terre Haute, Ind. 






36,673 


1863 


1863 


1863 


Dubuque, Iowa . 






36,297 


1866 


1867 


1867 


Quincy, 111. . . 






36,252 


1862 


1862 


1863 


South Bend, Ind. 






35,999 


1868 


1868 


1870 


Salem, Mass. 






35,956 


1636 


1836 


1877 


Johnstown, Pa. . 






35,936 


1868 


1882 


1890 


Elmira, N. Y. . 






35,672 


1861 


1861 


1861 


Allen town. Pa. . 






35,416 


1868 


1868 


1869 


Davenport, Iowa 






35,254 


1859 


1859 


1860 


McKeesport, Pa. 






34,227 


1881 


1881 


1881 


Springfield, 111. . 






34,159 


1857 


1858 


1858 


Chelsea, Mass. . 






34,072 


1845 


1852 




Chester, Pa. . . 






33,988 


1872 


1872 


i872 


York, Pa. . . . 






33,708 


1870 


1870 


1870 


Maiden, Mass. . 






33,664 


1857 


1857 


1857 


Topeka, Kan. . 






33,608 


1874 


1874 


1874 


Newton, Mass. . 






33,587 


1859 


1859 


1859 


Sioux City, Iowa 






33,111 


1869 


1876 


1876 


Bayonne, N. J. . 






32,722 


1880 


1880 


1880 


Knoxville, Tenn. 




32,637 


1875 


1875 


1880 


Schenectady, N. Y 




31,682 


1855 


1855 


1856 



522 



THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 







Date of 
first open- 


Date of es- 


Date when H. 3. 




Population 


tablishment 
of a regular 


began to receive 
pupils by pro- 




of City 


Public 


2 t 4 year 


motion upon 




1900. 


High 
School. 


course in 


completion of a 






the High 


6 to 8 year ele- 








School. 


mentary course. 


Fitchburg, Mass. . . 


81,531 


1830 


1849 


1876 


Superior, Wis. . . . 


31,091 


1889 


1889 


1889 


Rockford, 111. . . . 


31,051 


1857 


1858 


1859 


Taunton, Mass. . . . 


31,036 


1838 


1838 


1871 


Canton, Ohio . . . 


30,667 


1854 


1854 


1854 


Butte, Mont. . . . 


30,470 


1880 


1880 


1880 


Montgomery, Ala. . . 


30,346 


1882 


1882 


1882 


Auburn, N. Y. . . . 


30,345 


1866 


1866 


1866 


Chattanooga, Tenn. . 


30,154 








East St. Louis, 111. . 


29,655 


1874 


iiii 


1874 


Joliet, 111 


29,353 


1868 


1872 


1874 


Sacramento, Cal. . . 


29,282 


1854 


1897 


1854 


Racine, Wis 


29,102 


1853 


1853 


1853 


La Crosse, Wis. . . 


28,805 


1871 


1876 


1871 


Williamsport, Pa. . . 


28,757 


1869 


1869 


1869 


Jacksonville, Fla. . . 


28.429 


1873 


1873 


1873 


New Castle, Pa. . . 


28,339 


1875 


1875 


1875 


Newport, Ky. . . . 


28,301 


1873 


1873 


1873 


Oshkosh, Wis. . . . 


28,284 


1856 


1856 


1856 


Woonsocket, R. I. . . 


28,204 


1857 


1874 




Pueblo, Colo. . . . 


28,157 


1879 


1879 


1880 


Atlantic City, N. J. . 


27,838 








Passaic, N. J. ... 


27,777 


1870 


1886 


isVi 


Bay City, Mich. . . 


27,628 








Fort Worth, Tex. . . 


26,688 








Lexington, Ky. . . 


26,369 








Gloucester, Mass. . . 


26,121 


1850 


1850 


1856 


Joplin, Mo 


26,023 


1886 


1893 


1886 


South Omaha, Nebr. . 


26,001 








New Britain, Conn. . 


25,998 


1851 


i872 


i882 


Council Bluffs, Iowa . 


25,802 


1868 


1868 


1868 


Cedar Rapids, Iowa . 


25,656 






. . . 


Easton, Pa 


25,238 


1853 


1854 


1854 


Jackson, Mich. . . . 


25,180 




1866 


1860 



ERRATA — INDEX 

Page 524. Insert Angell, President James B., 413. 

For Aschara, Robert, read Ascham, Roger. 
Page 52b. Under Brooks, Phillips, yb/- grandson read great-grandson. 

" Calhoun, C. -\ 

" Calhoun, Wm. > for Wilmington read Williugton. 

" Carey, George ) 
Page 533. Insert Hammond, Rev. Charles, 484, 505, 507, 509, 516. 
Page 537. Under Massachusetts (State), after 352-353 ; omit the word not. 

" Moody, Samuel, omit Newbury (Mass.) Gr. and insert 
Dummer. 
Page 539. " Nightingale, /or R. F. read A. F., and for 380 read 386. 

" Normal schools, for forerunners read followers. 

" Northampton (Mass.), insert Gr. S., 124; before Round 
Hill, S. 
Page 540. " Occum (Rev.), /or Samuel reoof Samson. 

Page 541. " Plato, /or Academicus re«(f Academus. 

Page 543. " Shurtleff College, omit Rock Spring. 

Page 544. Insert Tetlow, John, 413. 



INDEX 



PREPARED BT WILLIAM WARNER BISHOP, CHIEF CATALOGUER, PRINCETON 
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 

The following abbreviations are used in this index : acad., academy ; gr. s., 
grammar school; h. s., high school; s., school; ss., schools. Other abbreviations 
are self-interpreting. 



Abbot, Benjamin, principal Phillips 
Exeter Acad., 198, 244, 258-260. 

Abbot Acad., Audover, Mass., 254, 
498. 

Academy as a type of school, 152; 
use of the term, 156, 175, 176. 
(For individual academies, see 

names of academies and names of 

towns and cities.) 

Academies, American, in general, see 
chaps. IX. and XL, passim ; in- 
fluence on American life, 247 ; 
age of pupils in, 244 ; curricula, 
231, 232, 236, 237, 249; rela- 
tions to colleges, 247, to h. ss., 
314, 317-321. 
Countij acad., Maryland, 218 ; In- 
diana, 220, 221 ; Kentucky, 220. 

Academies, English, see chap. VIII., 
passim ; criticism and character- 
istics of, 18th cent., 174, 175; 
curricula, 1 68. 

Academies, German, 177 f. n. ; Scotch, 
177 f. n. 

Act of Uniformity (English) of 1662, 
161. 

Adam's Latin Grammar, 237, 276; 
Roman Antiquities, 238. 

Adam.s, John, principal Phillips An- 
dover Acad., 261-263, 515. 

Adams, Samnel, quoted, 241. 

Adaras Acad., Derby, N. H., 254. 



Addison, Joseph, in Franklin's Sketch, 
189. 

Adler, Dr. Felix, founder of the So- 
ciety for Ethical Culture, 426. 

Adolescence, relation to religious ex- 
perience, 452; study of, 410-413, 
415. 

jEneas Sylvias, treatise on educa- 
tion, 156. 

iEsop, Fables, read in colonial gram- 
mar ss., 130, 132. 

^Esthetics, study of, 427. 

Agriculture, county ss. of, Wiscon- 
sin, 365. 

Aiton, George B., member Board of 
Inspectors North Central Assn. 
of Colleges and Ss., 391. 

Akron, Ohio, graded school system 
established 1847, 353. 

Albemarle County, Va., Miller Man- 
ual Labor S., 338. 

Alexandria, Va., Acad., 201. 

Algebra, college entrance require- 
ment, 231. 
Study of, Amer. acad., 237, 238, 
277, 340; English acad., 169, 
171 ; h. ss., 301, 353, 417, 419. 

Alison, (Rev.) Francis, master Pres- 
byterian Synodal S., New Lon- 
don, Pa., 102 ; head of acad. in 
Philadelphia, 103, 183. 

Allentown, Pa., Acad., 201. 



524 



INDEX 



Amboy, N. J., Grammar S., 201. 

American Education Society, 264. 

American episcopate, efforts to es- 
tablish, 83, 284. 

American Historical Association, 387. 

American Mathematical Society, Chi- 
cago Section, 387. 

American Philological Association, 
387. 

Amherst, N. H., Acad., 199. 

Amory, Thomas, pupil at Westmin- 
ster S. (Eng.), 186, f. n. 

Andover, Mass., Abbot Acad., 254 ; 
Phillips Acad., see Phillips 
Acad., Andover, Mass. 

Andover Theological Seminary, 2.56. 

Annapolis, Md., King William's S., 
foundation, 56 ; see also St. John's 
College. Naval Academy, foun- 
dation, 335. 

Apparatus in sec. ss., American 
acad., 233 ; Franklin's Propo- 
sals, 180; made in Minnesota 
State Prison, 367 ; private ss., 
340. 

Aristotle, in Milton's proposed curri- 
culum, 158. 

Arithmetic, college entrance require- 
ments, 129, 249, 371. 
Study of, in acad., 237, 238, 277, 
278; colonial gr. ss., 131, 134, 
180; h. ss., 300, 307, 352 ; writ- 
ing ss., 19, 27, 134. 

Arnold, Matthew^, quoted,' 440. 

Arnold, Thomas, 448. 

Ascham, Robert, The Scholemaster, 
156. 

Ashworth, (Dr.) Caleb, master of 
acad. at Northampton and Daven- 
try (Eng.), 172. 

Association of Catholic Colleges of 
the U. S., 399. 

Association of colleges and prepara- 
tory ss. of the Middle States and 
Maryland, organization, 380 ; 
resolutions establisliiug college 
entrance examination board, 388, 
389, 423. 

Association of colleges and prepara- 



tory ss. of the Southern States, 
380. 

Astronomy, study of, in American 
acad., 232; English acad., 171; 
h. ss., 301, 417,419. 

Athletics. See Sports. 

Atkinson, (Dr.) Fred W., on the 
capacities of secondary s. stu- 
dents, 413. 

Atkinson, N. H., Acad., 199. 

Bache, Alexander Dallas, principal 
Philadelphia Central H. S., 311, 
430 ; report on German ss., 338, 
344. 

Bailey, Ebenezer, promoted educa- 
tion of girls, 254, 515. 

Baker, James H., pres. Univ. of Colo- 
rado, suggested Committee of 
Ten, 381. 

Baltimore, Md., City College, 311; 
Manual Training S , 401 ; Roman 
Catholic Theological Seminary, 
256, 326 ; St. Mary's College, 
326. 

Bancroft, George, founded Round 
Hill S., Northampton, Mass., 
339; Naval Acad., founded while 
he was Sec. of the Navy, 335 ; 
student at Gottingeu, 338. 

Bannister, (Mrs.) Wm. B. (Miss Z. P. 
Grant), head of acad. for girls, 
Ipswich, Mass., 254, 516. 

Baptist Church, promoted ss. in the 
South, 84. 

Barat, Madame Madeline, founder of 
order of the Sacred Heart, 329. 

Bardstowu, Ky., Roman Catholic edu- 
cational centre, 327. 

Barnard, Henry, leader of movement 
for h. s. in" Hartford, Conn., 312 ; 
on term academy, 155. 

Barnard, (Rev.) John, Autobiography 
quoted, 114; pupil in Boston 
Latin S., 130. 

Barnes, Daniel H., associate principal 
New York H. S. for Boys, 307. 

Barney, H. H., Report on the American 
SI] stem, 313, 



INDEX 



525 



Baton Rouge (La.) College, 213. 

Beatty, Charles, student at the " Log 
College," 118. 

Beaufort, S. C, Acad., 202 ; 3. 
founded at, 78. 

Beecher, Catherine, head of Seminary 
at Hartford, Conn., 254. 

Beecher, (Rev.) Edward, pres. Illi- 
nois College, 222. 

Bell, Thomas, benefactor of Rox- 
buiy, Mass., Grammar S., 41. 

Bell, (Dr.) Andrew, 294. 

Belleville (111.) Acad., 221. 

Beresford Bonnty S., Charleston, 
S. C, 98. 

Berkele}^, (Bishop) George, visit to 
America, 83 f. n. 

Berkeley, Wm., Gov. of Virginia, re- 
port on instruction in Va., 49. 

Berwick, Me., Acad., 200, 498. 

Bethlehem, Pa., Moravian Seminary, 
201, 498 ; Theological S., 256. 

Bethesda, Ga., Orphan House, 101. 

Bible, as textbook, 20, 131, 226, 236. 
See also New Testament. 

Bingham, Caleb, American Precep- 
tor, 236 ; Columbian Orcdor, 236 ; 
promoted education of girls, 254. 

Bingham School, Pittsboro, N. C, 
199. 

Bishop, Nathan, Supt. of Ss., Provi- 
dence, R. I., 312. 

Bishop of London, to grant certifi- 
cates to schoolmasters in Amer- 
ica, 64 ; jurisdiction over Ameri- 
can church, 63, 93. 

Blackwood's iSIagazine, quoted, 246. 

Blair, (Rev.) James, commissary of 
Bishop of London in Virginia, 
82. 

Blair, (Rev.) John, master of Fagg's 
Manor S., prof, at Princeton, 
118. 

Blair, (Rev.) Samuel, founder of 
Fagg's Manor S., 118. 

Bloomington, Ind., State Seminary, 
220. 

Boarding ss., academies as, 191, 
274 ; contrasted with public ss., 



448 ff. ; English, 155 ; Roman 
Catholic, 325. See also Episco- 
palian Boarding Ss^__ 

Bohemia Manor, Md., JesuiFs., 324. 

Book-keeping, study of, in h. ss., 307, 
353, 354. 

Booth, James C, instructor in Phila- 
delphia Central H. S., 420. 

Bordentown, N. J., Grammar S., 201. 

Boston, Mass., Advertiser, quoted, 
298. 

Boston, Mass., English H. S., 297- 
301, 303, 304-307, 308, 309, 313, 
498. 
Girls' H. S., 313, 499. 
Latin S., age of admission, 125 ; 
authors read in, 130 ; bibli- 
ography, 499, 500; Catalogue 
of 1886, 58; curriculum, 243, 
275, 276; foundation, 34; his- 
tory, post-Revolutionary, 274 ff., 
325 ; lengtli of course, 133, 275; 
studies, 131, 132. 
School buildings, 141. 
School system, 1 99, 295. 

Botany, study of, in secondary ss., 
254. 

Boucher, (Rev.) Jonathan, Rector at 
Annapolis, Md., 106, 119, 120; 
life, 119, 515; quoted, 167 f. n. 

Boutwell, George S., Educational 
Topics and Institutions, quoted, 
318-321. 

Bowdoin, James, pupil Boston Latin 
S., 116. 

Bowes, John, pupil of John Frank- 
laud at Rathmill, Eng., 162. 

Bradford (Mass.) Acad., 253, 500. 

Bradley's Prosody, 277. 

Brant, Joseph, pupil iu Moor's In- 
dian Charity S., 93. 

Bray, (Rev.) Thomas, Commissary of 
the Bishop of London in Mary- 
lajid, 82. 

Briusley, John, The Grammar 
Schoole, 19 ff., 29, 30 ; Consola- 
tion for our grammar schools, 59. 

Brook Farm, 336. 

Brooks, S. D., prof. Univ. of Illinois. 



526 



INDEX 



member Board of Inspectors, 
North Central Assn. Colleges 
and Ss., 391. 

Brooks, Phillips, grandson of Judge 
Phillips, 195 f. n. ; Oration on 
Boston Latin S., 110, 115. 

Brothers of the Christian Schools, 
educational work in America, 
.328. 

Brougham, Lord, on Edinburgh H. 
S., 310 f. u. 

Brown, — , prof. Univ. of Iowa, mem- 
ber Board of Inspectors, North 
Central Assn. of Colleges and 
Ss., 391. 

Brown University, Providence, R. I., 
foundation, 101, 147. 

Bryant, Wm. C, 247. 

Buchanan, John T., principal De 
Witt Clinton H. S , New York 
City, 407. 

Burlington, N. J., Acad., 201. 

Burnbara, Dr. Wm. H., on the psy- 
chology of adolescence, 411-412. 

Burns, (Rev.) J. A., urged Roman 
Catholic h. ss., 399. 

Burns, Robert, 337. 

Burr, (Rev.) Aaron, master classical 
s., Newark, N. J., 95 ; pres. 
Princeton College, 95. 

Burr, Aaron, cousin of Timothy 
Dwight, 267. 

Bushnell, Horace, leader in move- 
ment for h. s. in Hartford, 
Conn., 312. 

Butler, Joseph (Bishop of Durham), 
student at Gloucester Acad., 
167. 

Butler, Nicholas Murray, pres. 
Columbia Univ., advocate of 
College Entrance Examination 
Board, 388. 

C^SAR, study of, in acad., 237, 272, 
277 ; in colonial secondary ss., 
131, 132; required for entrance 
to Columbia College, 1785, 231. 

Cahill H. S., Philadelphia, founda- 
tion, 399. 



Caldwell, (Rev.) David, master classi- 
cal s., Guilford Co., N. C, 99. 
Caldwell, (Rev.) Joseph, Autohiog- 

raphj/ quoted, 272. 
Calhoun, James, aided Geo. McDufhe 

at South Carolina College, 271. 
Calhoun, John C, pupil of Moses 

Waddel at Wilmington, S. C, 

271. 
Calhoun, Wm., assisted Geo. McDuffie 

at Wilmington, S. C, 271. 
California, School System of, 215, 

354, 367, 489, 490 ; University 

of, accrediting system, 374, 375. 
California S. of Mechanical Arts, 

San Francisco, Cal., 402. 
Calvary Acad., Bardstown, Ky., 

founded, 327. 
Calvin, John, quoted, 436. 
Calvinism, influence on secondary 

education, 8 ff., 62, 63. 
Cambridge, Mass., Gr. S., foundation, 

40; H. S., 500. 
Cambridge, S. C, College, 202. 
Carey, George, pupil of Moses Wad- 
del at Wilmiugton, S. C, 271. 
Carroll, Charles, pupil in Jesuit S., 

Bohemia Manor, Md., 324. 
Carroll, John, Bishop of Baltimore, 

established Georgetown Acad., 

324-326. 
Carter, RoJjert, school house on his 

estate in Westmoreland Co., Va., 

142. 
Cartwright, (Rev.) Peter, suggested 

foundation of McKendreean 

College, 222. 
Cass, Lewis, pnpil at Phillips Exeter 

Acad., 198, 249, 259, 260. 
Catholic. See Roman Catholic. 
Catholic University of America, 

Washington, D. C, foundation, 

399. 
Cato, Distichia, read in ss, 131, 135, 

153, 158. 
Celestial mechanics, study of, iu 

English acad., 171. 
Celsus, in Milton's proposed curric- 
ulum, 158. 



INDEX 



527 



Charity S., Philadelphia. See Phila- 
delphia, Public Acad. 

Charles the Great (Charlemagne), his 
active interest in education, 60. 

Charles City, Va., "East Indy S.," 
32. 

Charleston, S. C, Acad., 202 ; Beres- 
ford Bounty S., 98; Citadel S., 
337 ; Cotes' Classical S., 339. 
Gr. S., foundation, 96 ; corpora- 
tion, 150. 

Charlestown, Mass., Gr. S., founda- 
tion, 37. 

Charlestown, N. H., Acad., 199. 

Charlotte, N. C, Liberty Hall Acad., 
99 ; Queen's College, 99. 

Chauncy Hall S., Boston, Mass., 
340, 500. 

Cheever, Ezekiel, life, 110-115, 448; 
bibliography of, 516; master 
Boston Latin S., 36 ; master 
Charlestowu Gr. S., 38 ; master 
Ipswich Gr. S., 38 ; master New 
Haven Gr. S., 44 ; his Latin 
Accidence, 130, 152. 

Chemistry, study of, in Amer. acad., 
233, 238, 25*4; in h. ss., 419. 

Chicago, 111., H. S., 313, 501 ; Manual 
Training S., 401. 

Childsbury, S. C, Free S., founda- 
tion, 98. 

Church and state, separation of, 81, 
204. 

Church of England, control of ss., 
62 ; missionary work in America, 
18th cent., 81. 

Churchill, Winston, portrayal of edu- 
cational conditions in Richard 
Carvel, 109. 

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, read in ss., 
128, 129, 130, 132, 137, 246, 277; 
required for entrance to Colum- 
bia College, 1755, 231. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, Hughes H. S., 313, 
501 ; Woodward H. S., 313, 501. 

Citizenship, education for, 437. 

Civics, study of, in h. ss., 318. 

Clap, Thomas, pres. Yale College, 
281-283, 351 f. u. 



Clarke's hitroduction to writing Latin, 
132, 231, 265. 

Classics, ancient, college entrance 
requirement before 1800, 128, 
231 ; methods of instruction in, 
424 ; position in curriculum, 441- 
442. 
Study of, in Amer. acad., 182, 
183, 188, 191, 195, 205, 231, 246, 
263, 265 ; in gr. ss., 37, 43, 
51, 55, 94, 97, 99, 104, 112, 
130, 1.32, 133, 241, 272, 275-276; 
in English acad., 158, 160, 163, 
168, 170. See also Greek lan- 
guage ; Latin language. 

Clergymen as tutors, ] 19. 

Clinton, DeWitt, Gov. of New York, 
urged adoption of Lancasterian 
methods by N. Y. state, 305. 

Clinton Acad. (Long Island), N. Y., 
199. 

Co-education, 240, 244, 245, 251, 252, 
253, 268, 400 ; collegiate, 255. 

Cogswell, Joseph Green, founder of 
Round Hill S., Northampton, 
Mass., 339, 516; student at Got- 
tingen, 338. 

Coit, (Rev.) Henry Augustus, first 
rector St. Paul's S., Concord, 
N. H., 395, 431. 

Cokesbury College, Abingdon, Md., 
agriculture instead of play, 
336 f. n., 501. 

Colchester, Conn., Bacon Acad., 318. 

Colet, John, Dean of St. Paul's, 
founder of St. Paul's S., Lou- 
don, Eng., 12, 28 ; quoted, 17. 

College Entrance Examination Board 
of the Middle States and Mary- 
land, organization, 389, 413, 465. 

Colleges, American, in general, 225, 

280. 

Administration of, Amer., 145 f., 

279, 285, 288, 289; English, 144. 

Entrance examinations, 371 f., 380, 

388, 392. 
Entrance requirements, in general, 
231 f., 370, 371-373, 383, 385, 
386,387,442-443; Harvard, 128, 



528 



INDEX 



423; Princeton, 129; William 
and Mary, 129 ; Yale, 129 , uni- 
form, 388-390. 
For women, 329, 330. 
Non-classical courses, 248, 372. 
Relations to sec. ss., colonial 
period, 37, 57, 89, 90, 92 ; before 
1865, 230 f., 247, 249, 250; since 
1865, 370-379, 380, 385-386, 388, 
442. 
Accrediting S3'stems for entrance, 
in general,' 374-376, 390-391 ; 
California, 374-376 ; Indiana, 
378-379; Michigan, 373, 374, 
376 ; Missouri, 377. 

Colorado, School System, bibl., 490, 
491, 496. 

Columbia University (Columbia Col- 
lege, King's College), New York, 
N. Y., 83, 94, 209, 347 ; contro- 
versy over incorporation, 283, 
286, 288-289, 291 ; entrance re- 
quirements, 231, 247 ; scientific 
course at, 248 ; Gr. School of, 
95 ; Teachers' College, 429. 

Columbia, S. C, Arsenal S., 334. 

Columella, in Milton's proposed cur- 
riculum, 158. 

Commercial education, secondary, 
404-405. 

Commission of Colleges in New 
England on Secondary Educa- 
tion, 380, 386. 

Commissioner of Education (U. S.), 
Reports, quoted, 373, 417, 418. 

Concord, N. H,, Acad., 199; St. 
Paul's S., 395. 

Coudorcet, M. J. A., influence on the 
form of Univ. of France, 210 f. u. 

Conic sections, study of, English 
acad., 171. 

Connecticut (Colony), act provid- 
ing for support of ss., 1650, 
72 ; gr. ss., early, 44-48 ; School 
system, 92-93. 
(State), h. s. movement, 312, 367; 
School system, 200, 224, 352, 
488, 490, 496. 

Convent ss. for girls, 255, 326, 327, 329. 



Cooper, James Fenimore, 247. 

Cooper, Myles, pres. Columbia Col- 
lege, 288. 

Cooper Institute, New York City, 
403. 

Copeland, Patrick, promoter of the 
East Indy S. in Va., 33, 34 f. n. 

Corderius, Colloquia, read in colonial 
gr. ss., 22, 130, 132, 272. 

Corlett, Elijah, master Cambridge 
(Mass.) Gr. S., 40, 70, 516, 

" Corporation." See Colleges, admin- 
istration; Schools, administra- 
tion. 

Correlation of studies, Report of Com- 
mittee of Ten, 382. 

Cotes, Christopher, master classical 
s. at Charleston, S. C , 339, 340. 

Cotton, (Rev.) John, supported Bos- 
ton Latin S., 36. 

Cousin, Victor, influence of the Eng- 
lish translation of his report on 
Prussian ss., 338. 

Cowper, Wm., The Task, studied in 
Amer. acad., 235. 

Cradock, Samuel, master at Wick- 
hambrook, Eng., 169. 

Crawford, Wm. H., pupil of Moses 
Waddel, 271. 

Cromwell, Oliver, established college 
at Durham, 161. 

Crouch, Ralph, master of a gr. s. in 
Maryland, 56. 

Crozet, Claude, first prof, of engi- 
jieeriug at West Point, 332. 

Culture, liberal, keynote of Amer. 
colleges and acad., 229 ; influ- 
ence of, on education of girls, 
255. 

Curricula of secondary ss., colonial, 
128 f. See also Academies ; High 
Schools, curricula. 

Curtius, Alexander Carolus, rector 
first gr. s.. New York City, 52. 

Gushing, Caleb, speaker at meeting 
in honor of Dr. Abbott, Exeter, 
N. H., 260. 

Custis, John Parke, pupil of Jonathan 
Boucher, 120; correspondence of 



INDEX 



529 



Washington regarding him, 121- 
123. 
Cyrus, Travels of, in English, in 
Franklin's Sketch, 189. 

" Damr " Ss., 243. 

Dana's Latin Tutor, 277. 

Dartmouth College, corporation, 
147 f. n., 289-291; foundation, 
91, 93. 

Dartmouth College Case, 283, 289, 
290, .292, 293, 296, 319. 

Davidson Acad., Nashville, Tenn., 
foundation, 219. 

Dayton, Ohio, school system estab- 
lished, 1848, 353. 

Debating clubs, 244, 432. 

" December Conference," Berlin, 
1890, 464. 

Declamation, in Amer. acad., 235, 
237, 238, 265 ; iu h. sa., 300, 
301, 307. 

Defoe, Daniel, life, 178 ; project of 
a military acad. realized in West 
Point, 331 ; pupil at Mr. Mor- 
ton's acad., 175 ; use of word 
"academy," 175; Essay on pro- 
jects, 165 ; Present state of parties, 
quoted, 163. 

De La Salle Acad., New York City, 
foundation, 328. 

Delaware (Colony), School System, 
103; (State), do., 225, 494. 

Democracy, growth of, iu America, 
348 ; relations to education, 455- 
457. 

Denmark (la.) Acad , 223. 

Derby (Mass.) Acad., 199. 

Derby S., Hingham, Mass , 200, 
502. 

Derry, N. H., Adams Acad., 254. 

Detroit, Mich., H. S., 313, 502. 

Dewey, (Admiral) George, educated 
at Norwich Univ., 333. 

Dewey, Prof. John, quoted, 436. 

Dexter, , quoted, 108. 

Dickinson, Jonathan, master classi- 
cal s., Elizabetlitowu, N. J., 
pres. Prmceton College, 95. 



Diderot, Denis, influence of his Plan 
of a university on the organiza- 
tion of the Univ. of France, 205, 
210. 

Dilworth's Spelling Book, 131. 

Dionysius' Periegesis, studied in 
Tewkesbury Acad., 168. 

Disciples' Church, formation of, 239. 

Doddridge, (Rev.) Philip, master 
acad. at Northampton, Eng., 169, 
170, 171, 176, 178, 193; Family 
Expositor, 262 ; System of Divin- 
ity, 171. 

Domestic economy, county ss. of, in 
Wisconsin, 365. 

Domestic science, 367. 

Doolittle, , master acad. in Isling- 
ton, Eng., 169. 

Dorchester, Mass., Gr. S., early his- 
tory, 39, 70, 148, 502 ; foundation 
38 ; government of, 1645, 136. 

Dorchester, S. C, Free S., founda- 
tion, 93. 

Dormitories in acad., 201, 244. 

Douglass, John, first master of Gram- 
mar S., Charleston, S. C, 96. 

Dove, David James, English master 
Philadelphia Acad., 181 ; in 
Mitchell's Hugh Wynne, 109. 

Dramatic performances in acad., 245. 

Drawing, iu secondary ss., acad., 
191; h. ss., 307, 354; Frank- 
lin's P)-oposals, 180. 

Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, 404. 

Dubuque, la., branch of state univer- 
sity, 223. 

Dummer, Wm. (Lieut.-Gov. of Mass.), 
founder of gr. s. at Newbury, 
91, 92. 

Dummer Acad., Newbury, Mass., 92, 
200. 

Dummer S., Byfield, Mass., 193, 502. 

Dwight, Timothy, career, 266-269 ; 
made acad. at Greenfield Hill 
co-educational, 253; pres. Yale 
College, 248 ; principal Green- 
field Hill Acad., 249 ; poem, 
Greenfield Hill, quoted, 269. 



34 



30 



INDEX 



AST Indy S., Charles City, Va., 33. 
aton, Thomas, founder of a gr. s. 

in Virginia, 49. 
aton's Charity S., 99. 
au Claire, Wis., Manual Training 
S., 401. 
Fcclesiastical control of ss., 230, 255, 
324-331 ; opposition to, 342-343. 
I dinburgh (Scotland) H. S., 304, 305, 

398-410. 
. dwards, B. B., Sec. American Edu- 
catioo Society, quoted, 224-225, 
226. 
Edwards, (Rev.) Jonathan, grand- 
father of Timothy Dwight, 266 ; 
quoted, 88 ; relations to English 
Nonconformists, 176 ; started the 
" Great Awakening," 86, 105. 
: Ibridge, N. Y., Monroe Acad., 263. 
l.;iective courses in secondary ss., 

384-385, 387, 439. 
Elementary ss., Amer., 294, 295, 299, 

328, 409 ; English, 144, 294. 
Eliot, Charles Wm., pres. Harvard 
University, advocate of uniform 
requirements for college en- 
trance, 389 ; chairman Com- 
mittee of Ten, 381. 
' liot, John, the "Apostle to the 
Indians," 42, 114f. n. 
lizabethtown, N. J., Acad., 201 ; 
Classical S., 95; Gr. S., 96. 
; Ikton, Pa., S. of the synod of Phila- 
delphia, 103. 
merson, George Barrell, master 
English Classical S., Boston, 
Mass., 301. 
merson, (Rev.) Joseph, his semi- 
nary at Byfield and Saugus, 254. 
merson, Ralph Waldo, pupil at 
Boston Latin S., 274 ; quoted, 275. 
mmitsburgh, Md., Girls' S. of Sis- 
ters of Charity, 327. 
''nglish grammar ss., 16th and 17th 
centuries, chap. II., passim ; cur- 
ricula, 20 f. 
nglish language. Composition, col- 
lege entrance requirement, 371 ; 
place of the study of, 439. 



English language — continued. 

Study of, in acad., 191, 232, 233, 
238, 253 ; in gr. ss., colonial, 
133; in h. ss., 300, 301, 307, 
352. 
Franklin's Proposals, 1 80 ; do. 
Sketch, 189. 
English language, Grammar, college 
entrance requirement, 231. 
Study of, in acad., 234, 237, 238, 
342 ; in girls' ss., 253 ; in h. ss., 
352. 
English literature, college entrance 
requirement, 372 ; methods of 
teaching, 422-423 ; study of, in 
h. ss., 300, 418. 
Episcopal control of ss., 61, 62. 
Episcopalian boardiixg ss., 331, 394- 

397. 
Episcopalianisra, 81 f. 
Erasmus, Desiderius, 16, 156. 
Erasmus Hall, Brooklyn, N. Y., 199, 

502. 
Ethical Culture, Society for, 426. 
Ethics, instruction in, proposed in 
Franklin's Sketch, 189. 
Study of, in acad., 232 ; in h. ss., 
352, 426, 427 ; in Girard College, 
343. 
Eton (Eng.) S., 260. 
Eutropius, read in colonial gr. ss., 

132, 153. 
Evening h. ss., 401. 
Everett, Edward, 198, 260, 338. 
Exeter, N. H., Phillips Acad. See 

Phillips Exeter Acad. 
" Exhibitions," in acad., 245. 
Experiments. See Laboratory meth- 
ods. 

Fagg's Manor S., 118. 

Fairfield, la., branch of State Univ., 
223. 

Faueuil, Peter, letter to England in- 
quiring for a clerk, 186 f. n. 

Faribault, Minn., Shattuck S., 397, 
512. 

Farmington, Conn., H. S., founda- 
tion, 352. 



INDEX 



531 



Fellenberg, Philip Emanuel, founder 
of Hofwyl Institute, 335, 336, 
346. 

Fenelon, Abbe, Telemachus, study of, 
in English, Franklin's Sketch, 
189. 

Finley, (Rev.) Samuel, master acad. 
at Nottingham, Md., 100; pres. 
Princeton College, 100, 118. 

Fisk, (Rev.) John, master Salem 
(Mass.) S., 38. 

Fiske, Catherine, head of acad. for 
girls, Keene, N. H., 254. 

Fithian, Philip Viekers, chaplain in 
Continental army, 122; tutor in 
family of Robert Carter of Vir- 
ginia, 119; Journal and Letters, 
quoted, 142. 

Five Mile Act (English), 162. 

Florida, School System, 223, 489. 

Flower, Enoch, master at Philadel- 
phia, 1683, 74. 

Flushing Institute. See St. Paul's 
College. 

Forbes, S. A., prof. Univ. of Illinois, 
suggested commission on ac- 
credited ss., 390. 

" Formal discipline," 385 f. n. 

Forms, colonial grammar ss., 139. 

Fouille'e, AKred, 454, 457. 

Fourcroy, his knowledge of the Univ. 
of New York, 210 f. n. 

Fowle, W. B., editor of "Schools of 
the olden time in Boston," 
Common SchoolJournal, vol. XII., 
131 f. n. 

France, influence of, on American 
education, 204, 209, 210 f. n. 

France, University of, 210 f. n. 

" Frankfort plan," 465. 

Frankland, Richard, head of college 
at Durham, and of acad. at 
Rathmill (Eug.), 161. 

Franklin, Benjamin, attended Boston 
Latin S., 140; Defoe's influence 
on him, 156, 175; friendship for 
Dr. Priestley, 1 72 ; founder of 
Philadelphia Public Acad., 180 f ; 
showed need of teachers for ele- 



mentary ss., 250; use of term 
"academy," 156; Autobiography, 
quoted, 87 ; Project of an acad- 
emij, 156; Proposals, etc., 126; 
Sketch of an English school, 188- 
189, 234, 423. 

Franklin College, Ga. See Georgia, 
University of. 

Fredericksburg, Va., Acad., 99. 

Free Academy, term, 301-302. 

"Free" ss., 31, 143. 

Freehold, N. J., Acad., 201. 

French, (Rev.) Jonathan, 196. 

French language, college entrance 
requirement, 248. 
Stady of, in acad. at Northamp- 
ton, Eng., 171; in Amer. acad., 
191, 340; in Franklin's Pro- 
posals, 182; in Girard College, 
345; in h. ss., 355, 417, 419. 

Friends, Society of. See Quakers. 

Fryeburg, Me., Acad., 200. 

Gainesville (Fla.), East Florida 
Seminary, 223. 

Gale, Theophilus, master of acad. at 
Newington, Eng., 165. 

Galitzin, Madame de, head of com- 
munity of Ladies of the Sacred 
Heart, New York, 329. 

Gardner, Francis, master Boston 
Latin S , 430. 

Gaston, Wm., first student George- 
town, Md., Acad., 325. 

Gayarre, (Dr.) Charles, reminiscences 
of the College of New Orleans, 
212. 

Geography, college entrance require- 
ment," 231, 249, 371. 
Study of, in American acad. 191, 
233, 237, 238, 253, 277 ; in colo- 
nial secondary ss., 131 ; in Eng- 
lish acad., 171; in h. ss , 300, 
307, 352. 

Geography, physical, college entrance 
requirement, 371 ; study of, in 
h. ss., 417, 419. 

Geology, study of, in h. ss., 417, 
419. 



532 



INDEX 



Geometry, college entrance require- 
ment, 232, 371. 
Study of, in Amer. acad., 238, 
278; in colonial gr. s., 134; 
in English acad., 169, 171; in 
h. .ss., 301, 353, 417, 419. 

George, Henry, pupil Central H. S., 
Philadelphia, 434. 

Georgetown, Md., Acad, of the Visi- 
tation, 326 ; Roman Catholic 
acad., 324-326, 503. 

Georgetown, S. C, Winyaw Indigo 
Society S., 98. 

Georgia (Colony), School System, 
ioi ; (State), School System, 201, 
225, 491; University of, 211, 
270, 301. 

German influence on American edu- 
cation, 338. 

German language, study of, in 
Franklin's Proposals, 1 82 ; in 
acad., 191 ; in h. ss., 417, 4 S. 

Germantown, Pa., Acad., 201, 503; 
H. S., 303. 

Girard, Stephen, founder of Girard 
College, 341-343. 

Girard College, Philadelphia, founda- 
tion and early history, 342-345, 
503. 

Girls, education of, 222, 244, 251, 252, 
2.53, 254-255, 268, 306, 312, 326, 
327, 329, 330, 400, 407. 

Gloucester, Eng., Acad, of Rev. 
Samuel Jones, 167. 

Goodwin, Edward J., principal Peter 
Cooper H. S., New York City, 
407. 

Goose Creek, S. C, S., foundation, 
98. 

Gould, Benjamin Apthorp, principal 
Boston Latin S., 243, 275; 
quoted, 275-277, 307-308. 

Grades in colonial gr. ss., 139. 

Gradus ad Parnassum, 132. 

Grammar schools, American, colo- 
nial period, in general, chap. III. ; 
decline, 91 ; prepared especially 
for the ministry, 57 ; relations 
to colleges, 57, 230 ; rules, 135 f. ; 



post-Revolutionary, 272, 27S 
English, 7 ff. 

" Grammar schools," modern usi 
of the term in Boston, 1789 
199 f. u. ' 

" Great Awakening," 85, 86, 87, 105 
268. 

Grant, Zilpah P. See Bannister 
(Mrs.) Wm. B. 

Greek language, college entrancr 
requirement, 128 f., 371, 372 
methods of teaching, 425. 
Study of, in Amer. acad., chaps 
IX. and XL, passim, 216, 237 
272, 277; in Amer. colonial ss. 
chap. VII., passim ; in Euglisl 
acad., chap. VIII., passim ; ii 
English gr. ss., 23, 26 ; in h 
ss., 35-2, 353, 354, 383,417,418 
419,441. 

Green, John C, founder of Law 
renceville S., 397. 

Green, Samuel, his description o: 
Nathan Hale, quoted, 123. 

Greenfield, Conn., Acad., 200. . 

Greenfield Hill, Conn., Acad., 249 
253, 268-269. 

Grew, Theophilus, prof. Philadelphir 
Public Acad., 184. 

Grisconi, John, opened h. s. for boys, 
New York City, 306; quoted 
309 ; travels in Europe, 304. 
305 ; visit to Edinburgh H. S. 
305, 516. 

Groton, Mass., Acad., 199, 505 
Groton S., 397. 

Guarino, treatise on education. 
156. 

Guilford, Conn., Grammar S., foun 
dation, 44. 

Guilford County, N. C, classical s. 
in, 99. 

Gulliver, John P., leader in the foun- 
dation of the Free Acad., Nor- 
wich, Conn., 315; quoted, 315 
316-318. 

Gunn, Frederick W., founder of the 
'' Gunnery," Washington, Conn. 
340. 



INDEX 



533 



Cuyse, Dr. John, tirged Jonathan 
Edwards to write his account of 
the Great Awakening, 176. 

Hackexsack, N. J., Washington 
Acad., 96, 201. 

Hadley, Mass., Hopkins S. (later 
Hopkins Acad.), 48, 117, 124, 
12.5, 148, 242, 504. 

Hagerstown, Md., St. James' Col- 
lege, 395. 

Haldimand, General, and boys of 
Boston Latin S., 138 f. n. 

Hale, John P., 260. 

Hale, Nathan, master at New Lon- 
don, Conn., 122, 516. 

Hall, Joseph, quoted, 24. 

Hall, Samuel R., opened seminary 
for training of teachers at An- 
dover, Mass., 150. 

Hallowell, Me., Acad., 200. 

Hamilton, Alexander, relations to 
the founding of the University 
of New York, 209. 

Hamr con, Va., H. S., endowment, 49. 

Hancock, John, 117. 

Harley, Robert (Earl of Oxford), 
pupil of John Woodhouse at 
Sheriff hales, Eng., 163. 

Harris, Wm. T., definition of secon- 
dary education, 3 ; on number 
of h. ss. in 1860, 313; member 
of the Committee of Ten, 381. 

Hart, Dr. John Seely, principal Central 
H. S., Philadelphia, 422, 430, 517. 

Hartford, Conn., Grammar S., 45, 
47, 200, 243, 504 ; H. S., 312, 
503, 504 ; Miss Beecher's Semi- 
nary, 254, 504. 

Hartlib, Samuel, letter of Milton to 
him, 155. 

Harvard University, 107, 193; en- 
trance requirements, 128, 232, 
249 ; elective courses, 248 ; or- 
ganization of the corporation, 
145, 281, 289; relations to Bos- 
ton Latin S., 37, 243 ; secured 
part of the Hopkins Fund, 47 ; 
support from Salem, 38. 



Haverhill, Mass., Acad., 241, 504. 

Haymount, N. C, Manual Labor S., 
337. 

Hazzard, J. C, ed. of Eutropius, 154. 

Hebrew language, study of, in Eng- 
lish acad., 167, 170. 

Helvetius, theory of education, 204. 

Henry, Matthew, pupil in acad. at 
Islington, Eng., 169, 193. 

Herodotus, studied in Phillips An- 
dover Acad., 263. 

Herschel, F. W., Astronomy, 232. 

High schools, American, in general, 
chaps. XIV .-XVI., pp. 295, 357- 
368, 393, 400; county h. .ss., 
Iowa, 354, Maryland, 355 ; cur- 
riculum, chap. XVIIL, passim, 
and 416-417, 419; development 
of term " h. s.," 301-303 ; per 
cent of population in, 465 ; right 
to maintain decided by courts, 
356-359 ; special legislation es- 
tablishing, 353 ; township h. ss., 
Indiana, 379, Wisconsin, 365. 
For individual h. ss., see names 
of cities and names of separate 
h. ss. 

History, ancient, college entrance 
requirement, 232, 371 ; study of, 
in Amer. acad., 238, 277. 

History, general, methods of teach- 
ing, 423-424, 428. 
Study of, in Amer. acad., 101, 
232, 238, 277 ; in English acad., 
171; in h. ss.,301, 353,417,419; 
in Franklin's Proposals, 181, in 
his Sketch, 189. 

History, United States, college en- 
trance requirement, 371. 
Study of, in Amer. acad., 236, 237 ; 
in h. ss., 301, 353, 462. 

Hingham, Mass., Derby S., 200. 

Hofwyl (Switzerland) Institute, 335- 
336, 346. 

Hoge, , prof. University of 

Missouri, member Board of In- 
spectors, North Central Assn. of 
Colleges and Ss., 391. 

Holland, School System, 77. 



534 



INDEX 



Holland, J. G., Arthur Bonnicastle, 

340. 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, The School 

Boi/, quoted, 262. 
Holy Cross College, Worcester, 

Mass., foundation, 328. 
Homer, study of, in acad., 277 ; in 

colonial gr. ss., 132 ; in Frank- 
lin's Sketch, 189. 
Hooper, Robert, pupil in Boston 

Latin S., 117. 
Hopewell, N. J., Baptist S., 95. 
Hopkins, Edward, benefactor of 

Connecticut and Massachusetts 

gr. ss., 45 f. 
Hopkins Grammar S. See Hadley, 

Mass. ; Hartford, Conn. ; New 

Haven, Conn. 
Horace, study of, in Amer. acad., 

238, 271, 277 ; in colonial gr. 

ss., 132 ; proposed in Franklin's 

Sketch, 189. 
Hort, (Rev.) Josiah, Archbishop of 

Tuani, pupil in acad. at Newing- 

ton, Eng., 167. 
Hughes, (Bishop) John, opened St. 

John's College, Fordham, N. Y., 

328. 
Hughes, John, pupil in acad. at New- 

ington, Eng., 167. 
Huguenots, settlement in the south 

of the U. S., 84. 
Hutchinson, (Gov.) Wm., description 

of Ezekiel Cheever, 114. 
Huxley, T. H., definition of a national 

system of education, 347. 

Illinois, School System, 221, 222, 

367, 497 ; legal status of h. ss., 

359. 
Illinois College, Jacksonville, 111., 

222. 
Independent Reflector, New York City, 

1752-1753, 284-286. 
Indiana, Constitution of 1816, quoted, 

349. 
Indiana, School System, county 

seminaries, 220 ; organization of 

state system, 364 ; State Board 



of Education as inspectors of 

secondary education, 378-379, 

491, 498; State Normal S., 379. 
University of, 220, 385 ; accrediting 

system, 378. 
Indians, education of, 93. 
Iowa, School System, acad., 222- 

223; h. ss., 354, 494. 
University of, 223. 
Ipswich, Eng., Cardinal Wolsey's S., 

17. 
Ipswich, Mass., girls' s., 254, 505. 
Irving, Washington, 247. 
Isocrates, read in Tewkesbury, Eng., 

Acad., 168. 

Jackson, (Gen.) Thomas J. ("Stone- 
wall"), teacher in the Virginia 
Military Institute, 334. 

Jacksonville (111.) Female Acad., 222. 

Jacob Tome Institute, Port Deposit, 
Md., 398. 

Jamison, David, master of Latin S. 
in New York City, 53. 

Jay, John, pupil at St. Paul's College, 
Flushing, L. I., 394. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 201, 228, 250 f. 
n. ; iuiluence on public educa- 
tion in Virginia, 292 ; letter to 
Cabell, quoted, 350 ; notes on 
the state of education in Virginia, 
quoted, 207, 208. 

Jesuits, Latin .ss., 8 ; Acad, at George- 
town, Md., 324-325 ; Holy Cross 
College, Worcester, Mass., 328 ; 
prominence of, in Roman Catholic 
educational work, 327 ; St. John's 
College, Fordliam, N. Y., 328, 
511 ; s. at Bohemia Manor, Md., 
324. 

Jewish antiquities, study of, in 
English Acad., 168, 169, 171. 

Johnson, Osgood, principal Phillips 
Andover Acad., 266. 

Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 165 f. n. ; 
on Milton's Tractate, 160. 

Johnson; Samuel (American), Ethica 
elementa, Noetica, in Franklin's 
iSketch, 189. 



INDEX 



535 



Johnston, Mary, portrayal of Ameri- 
can educational conditions in 
Audrey, 109. 

Jollie, (Rev.) Timothy, head of 
Rathmill Acad., Eng., 162. 

Jones, Joel, first pres. Girard College, 
345. 

Jones, (Rev.) Samuel, master acad, 
at Gloucester and at Tewkesbury, 
Eng., 167, 170. 

Jonesboro (111.) College, 222. 

Judges, visitors of colonial ss., 149. 

Judson, Harry Pratt, Dean Univ. 
Chicago, chairman Commission 
on accredited ss., 390. 

Kaj,a.mazoo (Mich.) H. S. Case, 

356-359. 
Kansas, School System, 367, 488,491. 
Keene, N. H., Miss Fiske's s. 254. 
Keith, George, master Philadelphia 

Gr. S., 54 ; missionary of Society 

for the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel, 82. 
Kentucky, School System, county 

acad., 219-220, 225, 491. 
Kent, (Chancellor) James, on the 

Dartmouth College Case, 290. 
King, Heury, founder of a free s. in 

Isle of Wight Co., Va., 49. 
King William's S., Annapolis, Md., 

foundation, 56 ; corporation of 
[ 150, 505. 
King's College, New York City. See 

Columbia University. 
Kingswood, Eng., Methodist S., 172. 
Knowlton, Cyrus, principal Hughes 

H. S., Cincinnati, Ohio, 431. 
Konkapunt, John, pupil at Nazareth 

Hall, 191. 

Laboratory methods in secondary 

ss., 383, 418-422. 
La Chalotais, L. R. C, educational 

theories, 204 ; quoted, 285. 
La Fayette (Marquis de), Jean Fran- 

9ois, his reputation in America 

after independence, 235. 



Lancaster, Joseph, founder of the 
monitorial system, 294. 

Lancasterian methods, 268, 305, 
311. 

Latin language, college entrance 
requirement, 128 f., 371 ; compo- 
sition in Amer. acad., 237, 272 ; 
composition in colonial grammar 
ss., 132 ; metliQda.aLieaclifeig, 21, 
22, 114, 273, 276,277-^8,424- 
425. 
Study of, in Amer. acad., chap. 
XI., passim; in colonial gr. ss., 
chap. VII., passim; in Englisii 
acad., chap. VIII. do. ; in English 
grammar ss., chap. II., do. ; in 
ii. ss., 352, 353, 354, 382, 417, 
419,441 ; in Franklin's Prcyjosa/s, 
181, 182. 

Latin ss., European, 7. 

Laud, (Archbishop) Wm., efforts to 
secure a bishop for America, 83. 

Lawrenceville S., Lawrenceville, 
N. J., 397. 

Laws, instruction regarding, 135 ; 
for legislation regarding ss., see 
School laws. 

Leach, Arthur F., on 16th cent, 
gr. ss., 17 ff. 

Lebanon, Conn., Moor's Indian 
Charity S., 93 

Lecture system in secondary ss., 421. 

Leicester (Mass.) Acad., 199, 200, 
240, 245, 253, 506. 

Leland Stanford, Jr., University, 385. 

Lewis, Samuel, on expansion of ele- 
mentary ss., 314. 

Lexington, Va., Virginia Military 
Institute, foundation, 334. 

L'Hommedieu, Ezra, founder of the 
University of New York, 209. 

Liberty (Ind.) county seminary, 220. 

Liberty Hall Acad , Charlotte, N. C, 
99. 

Libraries in secondary ss., English 
arad., 171, 174; in Franklin's 
Proposals, 180; recommended by 
Conamissiou on accredited ss., 
391. 



536 



INDEX 



Lick, James, founder of California S. 
of Mechanical Arts, 402. 

Lieber, Francis, plan for Girard Col- 
lege, 343. 

Lilly, Wm., master of St. Paul's S., 
London, Eng., 16; Latin Gram- 
mar, 132, 152. 

Livingston, Wm., controversy over 
incorporation of King's College, 
New York City, 283-287. 

Livy, read in Amer. acad., 238. 

Locke, John, influence on the Eng- 
lish acad., 166; in Franklin's 
Sketch, 189. 

"Log College," Neshamiuy, N. J., 
88, 98, 105, 117, 118, 506; term, 
89. 

Logic, study of, in Amer. acad., 233, 
238; in English acad., 171 ; in 
h. ss., 301, 333. 

Longstreet, A. B., pupil of Moses 
Waddel, 271. 

Loretto Acad., Bardstown, Ky., 
foundation, 327. 

Lotteries to support ss., Louisiana, 
212 ; New York, 287. 

Louisiana, early Catholic ss. in, 323 ; 
School System, 211-212, 213, 
367, 490. 

Lovell, James, assistant Boston 
Latin S., 116. 

Lovell, John, master Boston Latin S., 
115-117. 

Lower Marlboro (Md.) Acad., 192. 

Lowth's English Grammar, 234. 

Luyck, Aegidius, master New York 
City Grammar S., 52, 125. 

Lyon, Mary, founder of Mt. Holyoke 
Seminary, 254, 330. 

McCiiESNEY, J. P., principal h. s. 

Oakland, Cal., 423 f. n. 
McClosky, (Cardinal) John, first pres. 

of St. John's College, Fordham, 

N. Y., 328. 
McClure, David, his Diary, quoted, 

252, 336. 
McDuffie, George, pupil of Moses 

Waddel, 271, 



McGrew, Gifford H. G., list of early 

h. s., 314 f. n. 
McKendreean College, Illinois, 222. 
McLaren, lau (pseud.), see Watson, 

(Rev.) John, 
ilachias. Me., Acad., 200. 
Madison Acad., EdwardsviUe, III., 

221. 
Maine, School System, 200, 224, 367. 
Mair's Ditroduction (Latin), 272-273. 
Makin, Thomas, master Philadelphia 

Gr. S., 54. 
Malcolm, Alexander, master of a 

public s., New York City, 94. 
Manchester, Vt., Manual Labor S., 

337. 
Manigault, G. P., reminiscences of 

Mr. Cotes' Classical S., 350. 
Manhattan College, Manhattanville, 

N. Y., foundation, 328. 
Mann, Horace, 361 ; developed h. s. 

system of Massachusetts, 31 5 j 

report on German schools, 338 ; 

visit to Mr. Hall's Seminary, 

Andover, Mass., 250. 
Manners, instruction in, 135. 
Manning, (Rev.) James, pres. Rhode 

Island College, 101. 
Manual labor movement, 335, 338. 
Manual training ss , 401, 414. 
Marietta, Ohio, Manual Labor S., 

337. 
Marion, (Gen.) Francis, 235. 
Marshall, John, Chief Justice, opinion 

in Dartmouth College Case, 289. 
Martin, David, rector of Public 

Acad., Philadelphia, Pa., 183. 
Marye, (Rev.) James, master acad. 

at Fredericksburg, Va., 99. - 
Maryland (Colony), county gr. ss., 

217; grammar ss., foundation 

and early history, 55 f. ; School 

System, 75 f., 100 f., 192. 
Maryland (State), School System, 

201, 215, 225, 496; county h. s., 

355. 
Maryland Gazette, quoted, 187. 
Maryland, Univ. of, foundation, 218. 
Mason, On self-knowledije , 265. 



INDEX 



5S1 



Massachusetts (Bay Colony), act of 
General Court providing for 
public instruction, 64, 69 ; later 
acts, TO; foundation and early 
history of gr. ss., 34-44 ; school 
corporations, 148, 197. 

Massachusetts (Province), school 
law, 71 ; School System, 91, 92. 

Massachusetts (State), academy 
movement, 192 f., 200, 216-217'; 
School System, 199, 216, 489, 
490, 492, 493, 497 ; grants to 
acad., 217; 224, 305-313; h. s. 
movement, 311, 352-353; not 
compulsory by legislation of 
1891, 360, 368; present condi- 
tions of s. system, 361. 

Mathematics, methods of teaching, 
425 ; study of, in American 
acad., chap. IX., passim, 232 ; 
study of, in English acad., chap. 
VIII , do. 

Mather, Cotton, authority for text- 
books used in Boston Latin S., 
130; poem on Ezekiel Cheever, 
111; use of term "academy," 
178. 

Mather, Increase, use of term " acad- 
emy," 176 ; his position on lay- 
men as visitors, 149. 

Maud, Daniel, master of Boston Latin 
S., 1636,35. 

Maxwell, (Rev.) Samuel, description 
of Ezekiel Cheever, 115. 

Medford, Mass., Female Acad., 253. 

Mela, Pomponius, in Milton's pro- 
posed curriculum, 158. 

Meriwether, Higher education in South 
Carolina, quoted, 271. 

Metaphysics, study of, in English 
acad., 171. 

Michigan Military Acad., Orchard 
Lake, Mich., 397, 506. 

Michigan, School System, 213-214, 
215, 492, 493; Pres. Tappan on, 
351 ; Kalamazoo H. S. Case, 
356-359. 

Michigan, University of, foundation, 
213; German influence on, 338; 



leading position among state 
universities, 292 ; legal status, 
358. 

Milford, Conn., Gr. S., foundation, 44. 

Military schools, growth since Civil 
War, 397 ; origin, 332 ; popular 
in the South, 334-335. See also 
names of individual schools. 

Milton, John, use of term " academy," 
155, 156 ; in Franklin's Sketch, 
189; Tractate on education, 157- 
161; 174, 177; Paradise lost, 
used for parsing exercises, 235. 

Ministers, visitors of colonial ss., 
149. 

Ministry, education for, 109, 291. See 
also Theological Seminaries. 

Minnesota, School System, State h. 
ss., 366, 367, 494. 

Minnesota, University of, relations to 
h. ss., 366. 

Missouri, School System, 208, 377, 
496. 

Mitchell, (Dr.) Weir, Hugh Wynne, 
portrayal of condition of educa- 
tion in, 109. 

Modern Language Association of 
America, 387. 

Modern languages, college entrance 
requirement, 248, 372 ; Frank- 
lin's Proposals, 182; methods of 
teaching, 424. 

Monitorial system, 305-306, 307. 

Monitors, 137, 264-265. 

Monroe Co., Ill, Acad., 221. 

Montpelier, La., Acad., 213. 

Montreal, Canada, School of the 
Brothers of the Christian 
Schools, 328. 

Moody, Samuel, first master of New- 
bury (Mass.) Gr. S., 92, 139, 517. 

Moon, (Capt.) John, founder of gr. s. 
in Newport Parisli, "Va., 49. 

Moor's Indian Charity School, 93. 

Moral philoso])hy, study of, in acad., 
238; in h. s., 301. 

Moravian Church, s. at Nazareth, 
Pa., 190-192, 201 ; sem. at Beth-. 
Ichem, Pa., 201. 



538 



INDEX 



Morrill Act (1862), influence on 

higher education, 337, 370. 
Morris Academy, Morristown, N. J., 

199. 
Morristown, N. J., Gr. S., 201 . 
Morse, Jedediah, master Girls' School 

in New Haven, 253 ; Geographij, 

233. 
Morton, ( Rev. ) Charles, head of acad. 

at Newington Green (Eng.), 163, 

164. 
Mt. Holyoke Seminary, foundation, 

255, 507. 
Muhlenberg, (Rev.) Wm. Augustus, 

head of St. Paul's College, 

Flushing, L. I., 394, 517. 
Muirson, George, master gr. s., New 

York City, 94. 
Municipal control of schools, 310. 
Munson, Daniel, master Hopkins Gr. 

S., New Haven, 138. 
Munson, Eneas, description of Nathan 

Hale, quoted, 122. 
Murray, Lindley, Grammar, 234, 238 ; 

Readers, 236. 
Music, in Amer. acad., 191 ; in Amer. 

h. s., 354, 428. 

Napoleon I., Emperor of France, 
founder of University of France, 
210. 

Nashville (Tenn), University of, 
219. 

Natchitoches (La.) Acad., 213. 

National Educational Association, 
Committee on College Entrance 
Requirements, Report, 385-386 ; 
413, 439, 443, 465 ; Committee of 
Fifteen, Report 1895, quoted, 
429 ; Committee of Ten, organi- 
zation and Report, 381, 384-385, 
413,425,439,465; Department of 
Natural Science Instruction, 387; 
discussions of 1882 on manual 
training, 401. 

Natural history, in sec. ss. Frank- 
lin's Proposals, 181 ; in h. ss., 
307. 

Natural philosophy. See Physics. 



Navigation, study of, in Amer. acad., 
233, 238 ; in colonial gr. ss., 134 ; 
inh. ss., 301. 

Nazareth Academy, Bardstown, Ky., 
327. 

Nazareth Hall (Nazareth, Penn.,), 
190-192, 201, 244, 265, 507. 

Nebraska School System, 367, 489. 

Negroes, secondary schools for, 400- 
401. 

Nepos, Cornelius, read in American 
sec. ss., 277. 

Newark (Del), S. of the Synod of 
Phila. (Pres.), 103; Newark 
Acad., 103. 

Newark, N. J., Acad., 201. 

New Brunswick, N. J., Theol. Sem., 
256. 

Newbury, Mass., Gr. S., foundation, 
39. 

Newburyport, Mass., Putnam S., 317. 

New England Association of Colleges 
and Preparatory Schools, organi- 
zation, 380, 423. 

New England Primer, 131. 

New England, social distinctions, 18th 
cent., 108, 110. 

New Hampshire (Colony), act pro- 
viding for schools, 72 ; School 
System, 91. 

New Hampshire (State), School Sys- 
tem, 199, 224, 354, 367, 489. 

New Haven (Conn.), Gr. S., founda- 
tion, 44; control, 148. 
Hopkins Grammar S., 47, 148, 200, 
251, 267, ,504, .505. 

Newington Green (Eng.), acad. of 
Rev. C. Martin, 163 ; acad. of 
Theophilus Gale, 165. 

New Ipswich (N. H.) Acad., 199. 

New Jersey, College of. See Prince- 
ton University. 

New Jersey (Colony) School System, 
95, 96; (State) School System, 
201, 224, 494. 

•' New Lights," 92, 103, 281-283. 

New London (Conn.), " Shepherd's 
Tent," 92 ; Union School, foun- 
dation, 93. 



INDEX 



539 



New London (Pa.) Presbyterian 
Synodal S., 102. 

New Orleans (La.), college of, 212 ; 
Ursuline Seminary, 323. 

Newport (R. L), Acad., 200; gr. s., 
foundation, 48. 

New Testament, Greek, college en- 
trance requirement, 128, 129, 
231 ; study of, in English acad., 
168, 170; study of, in Amer. 
acad., 237, 277 ; study of, in 
gr. ss., 24, 128, 133, 272. 

Newton, (Sir) Isaac, influence on 
English acad., 232 ; Principia, 
268; Watt's dependence on, 166 

New York City, City College, 302, 
313, 406 ; first (elementary) 
school, 51 ; Free Public H. S., 
DeWitt Clinton, Wadleigh, 
Peter Cooper, Morris S., 407- 
408 ; Free School established 
1732, corporation, 150, 151; Free 
School Society, later, Public 
School Society, 294, 310, 508; 
Grammar S., foundation, 52 ; 
later. Collegiate S., 407 ; De La 
Salle Acad., foundation, 328 ; 
High School Society, 306, 508 ; 
High School for Boys, 1825, 
306 ; Female H. S., 306 ; Report 
quoted, 306-307 ; High School 
of Commerce, 405 ; high ss., 
course of study 1901, see Ap- 
pendix B., 473-476 ; Latin School 
(Jesuit), 53 ; Manual Training 
S., 401 ; Normal Cellege, foun- 
dation, 406. 

New York Private Secondary Ss., 
Trinity S., 407 ; Dr. Sach's Ss., 
407; Columbia Gr. S., 407; 
Mrs. Eeed's S., 407 ; Miss 
Spence's S., 407; The Misses 
Ely's S., 407 ; Brearley Ss., 407 ; 
Cutler S., 407; John Brown- 
ing's S., 407. 
New York (Colony), Gr. ss. founda- 
tion and early history 51-53. 
New York (Province) School System, 
93, 94. 



New York (State), School corpora- 
tions, 150-151; School System, 
200, 210, 224, 305, 355, 488, 489, 
491, 493, 494, 495, 497. 
New York State, University of, foun- 
dation, 209 (1784), 213, 215, 355 ; 
growth and activity to 1901, 361- 
363; regents' reports, quoted, 251. 

Nicholson, (Sir) Francis, Governor 
of Maryland, urges support of 
free ss. and gives lands for that 
purpose, 55. 

Nightingale, R. F., chairman N. E. A. 
com. on college entrance require- 
ments, 380. 

Ninety-six, S. C, S., found., 98. 

Noble, Patrick, pupil of M. Waddel, 
271. 

Nonconformists (English), acade- 
mies of, 161, 162 f., 173, 174, 
177, 179. 

Norfolk, Va., Acad., 201 ; gr. s., 
foundation, 1763, 99. 

Normal schools, 255 ; forerunners of 
acad., 251 ; influence on sec. ss., 
409, 410 f. n. 

North American Review, 305. 

North Carolina (Colony), School 
System, 98 f. 

North Carolina, School System, 201, 
202, 225, 495; University of, 
foundation, 291. 

North Central Association of Colleges 
and Secondary Schools, organi- 
zation, 380 ; its commission on 
accredited ss., 390-391. 

Northampton (Conn.) Gr. S., 124. 

Northampton (Eng.), acad. at, 169 f. 

Northampton (Mass.), Round Hill 
S., 339. 

Northfield (Vt.), Norwich University, 
332-333. 

Norwich (Conn.), Acad., 200 ; Free 
Acad., 314-315, 316-319, 320, 
321, 508. 

Norwich University, Northfield, Vt., 
foundation, 332, 508. 

Notre Dame, College of, Baltimore 
(Md.), 329. 



540 



INDEX 



Notre Dame of Namur, Sisters of, 
convent schools, 330 ; established 
in Cincinnati, 329 ; Trinity Col- 
lege, Washington, 330. 

Notre Dame University, foundation, 
328; 508. 

Nottingham (Md.), Acad, of Rev. 
Sam. Finley, 100. 

Obeklin College, foundation, 25.5. 
Occum, (Rev.) Samuel, pupil at 

Moor's Indian Charity S., 93. 
Ohio, School System, 225, 312, 313, 

353, 490, 491, 494, 496. 
Oldfield, Joshua, master at Coventry 

(Eng.), 169. 
" Old Lights," 281-283. 
Olmsted, Denison, on Greenfield Hill 

Acad., quoted, 269. 
Orangedale (N. J.) Acad., 201. 
Orchard Lake (Mich.), Michigan 

Military Acad., 397. 
Otis, Harrison Gray, pupil at Boston 

Latin S., 116; quoted, 132. 
Ovid, read in acad., 277 ; in colonial 

gr. ss., 130, 132. 

Paine, Robert Treat, pupil in Bos- 
ton Latin S., 117. 

Palmer, Samuel, controversy with 
Sara. Wesley, 164, 178. 

Park, (Rev.) Wm. E., recollections 
of Samuel Taylor, quoted, 266. 

Parliamentary commission on sec. 
educ. (English), 465. 

Partridge, Capt. Alden, founder of 
American Literary, Scientific, 
and Military Acad., Norwicli 
(Vt.), 332-333 ; founder of Vir- 
ginia Literar}^ Scientific, and 
Military Institute, Portsmoutli 
(Va.), 334: supt. West Point 
Acad., 332, 517. 

Pearson, Eliphalet, prin. Phillips 
(Andover) Acad., 196, 261. 

Pearsley, Henry, founder of a free s. 
in Gloucester Co., Va., 49. 

Penu, William, his frame of govern- 



ment, 73 ; relations to education 
in Penn., 54. 

Penn, William, Charter School, Phil- 
adelphia (Pa.), corporation, 150; 
early history, 55, 74 ; foundation, 
54; 514. 

Pennsylvania (Colony), acts provid- 
ing for ss., 74 ; gr. ss., founda- 
tion and early history, 53 f . ; 
School System," 103-104. 

Pennsylvania (State), School System, 
201, 218, 219, 224, 311, 367, 
497. 

Pennsylvania, University of, 147, 202, 
218, 509 ; incorporation, 288, 
291; Wharton School, 404. 

Peoria (111.) Roman Catholic H. S., 
400. 

Person, Wm., pupil in Phillips An- 
dover, 264-265. 

Pestalozzi, early experiments in man- 
ual training, 335. 

Pestalozzian movement, 226. 

Peters, (Rev.) Richard, preaches ser- 
mon at opening of Public Acad., 
Philadelphia, 183. 

Phasdrus, Fabuhi', read in Amer. sec. 
ss., 277. 

Philadelphia (Pa.), Cahill H. S., 399 ; 
Central H. S., 31 1, 420, 434, 509 ; 
Charity School, see Phila. Pub- 
lic Academy ; Girard College, 
342-345 ; Girls' Acad., 253 ; 
Grammar S., foundation, 54; 
Public Academy, 104, 180-183, 
190, 201. See also Penn, Wm , 
Charter School. 

Philadelphia, College of. See Penn- 
sylvania, University of. 

P]iilli]is Academy, Andover, 259 ; 
bibliograpliy, 202, 509 ; chartered, 
200; foundation, 195 f. ; history, 
261, 266," 304; name, 176; a 
"national" acad., 230; Josiali 
Quiucy, student of, 304 ; student 
societies, 245. 

Phillips Academy, Exeter (N. H.), 
199, 202, 230i 245, 259, 263, 510; 
athletics, 433 ; curriculum, 1818, 



INDEX 



541 



237,238, 249; foundation, 198; 
Golden Branch Society, 244 ; 
name, 176; Rhetorical Society, 
244. 

Phillips, John, founder of Phillips 
Acad., Exeter, N. H., 194, 517. 

Phillips, Samuel, founder of Phillips 
Academy, 193, 517; life, 241, 
261 ; theory of union of manual 
labor and education, 336. 

Phillips, Wendell, connection with 
founders of Phillips Acad., 
195 f. n. 

Phillips, William, of Boston, associ- 
ated in foundation of Phillips 
Academy, Andover, 194. 

Phillips family, 194 and f. n., 197. 

Physical exercise, apparatus for, in- 
troduced by G. F. Thayer, 340 ; 
Milton's Tractate, 159; Tewkes- 
bury Acad., 169. See also Sports. 

Physics, college entrance require- 
ments, 372. 
Study of, in Amer. acad., 233, 238; 
in Eng. acad., 171 ; in h. ss., 301, 
307, 417, 418, 419. 

Physiology, study of, in h. ss., 417, 
419. 

Pierce, Josiah, master Hopkins Gr. 
S., Hadley, Conn., 125. 

Pillans (Dr.), rector Edinburgh H. 
S., 305-306. 

Pittsburg (Pa.) Acad., 201. 

Plainfield (Conn.) Acad., 200, 262. 

Plato, his teaching in the grove of 
Academicus, origin of term 
" academy," 155. 

Piatt, (Senator) 0. PI., teacher at 
the " Gunnery," 340. 

Pliny the Elder, study of, in Milton's 
proposed curriculum, 158. 

Plymouth Colony Free School, 53. 

Political economy in h. ss., 354. 

Pollock, Robert, Course of time in 
Amer. acad., 235. 

Pomfret (Conn.) Acad., 200. 

Pope, Alexander, Letters, in Frank- 
lin's Sketch, 180; Essaij on man, 
in acad., 235. 



Pormont, Philemon, first master of 
Boston Latin School, 35. 

Port Deposit, Md., Jacob Tome Insti- 
tute, 398. 

Portsmouth, N. E., girls' school, 252. 

Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia, 
controversy over educated min- 
istry, 89 ; founds School of the 
Synod, New London, Pa., 1744, 
102, 103 ; protest, time of Great 
Awakening, 87. 

Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., 403. 

Priestley, (Rev.) Josepli, pupil in 
acad. at Coventry, Eng., life, 
172. 

Princeton University, entrance re- 
quirements, 129, 147, 232; foun- 
dation, 90, 98, 281. 

Princeton Grammar School, 201, 272. 

Pritchett, Henry S,, pres. Mass. In- 
stitute of Technology, on techni- 
cal instruction, 402. 

Private day ss., 398. 

Private schools, 339-341. 

Providence, R. L, 200 ; Gr. S., founda- 
tion, 48 ; H. S., 312, 510; Roman 
Catholic h. s., 400. 

Prudden, John, master Roxbury Gr. 
S., 124. 

Psychology, study of, in h. s., 417, 
419. 

Public control of schools. See State 
control; State support. 

Public exercises, Eng. acad., 171. 

Public schools, popular devotion to, 
331 ; per cent of students in, 400. 

Punishments, in acad., 244; colonial 
gr. ss., 136, 137, 274; Eng. gr. 
ss., 17tli cent., 23; by fine, 265. 

Purdue University, 379. 

Puritanism, in P]ngland, 62 ; influ- 
ence on education, 43. 

Putnam, Oliver, founder of Putnam 
S., Newbury, Mass., 317. 

QuAKEKS, gave instruction concern- 
ing laws of the land, 135 ; influ- 
ence on education, 73. 

Queen's College, CharloLte, N. C, 99. 



542 



INDEX 



Queen's College, New Brunswick, 
N. J. See Rutgers College. 

Quincy, Josiah, efforts toward found- 
ing (Boston) English Classical 
School, 304; established House 
of Industry in Boston, 305 ; 
pupil at Phillips Andover, 304 ; 
quoted, 194, 260, 304. 

Quintilian, iu Milton's proposed cur- 
riculum, 158. 

Eapides (La.) College, 213. 

Readfield, Me., Maine Weslej-an 
Seminary, 337. 

Reading books, school, in Amer. 
acad., 235, 236. 

Reading schools (Eng,), 17th cent., 19. 

Reformation, the, influence on school 
systems, 61. 

Religion, instruction in, acad., 239, 
265 ; colonial gr. ss., 135 ; Eng- 
lish gr. ss., 17th cent., 23; h. 
ss., 352, 426, 427, 451-453. 

Religious freedom, 84. 

Requirements for entrance. See Col- 
lege entrance requirements. 

Rhetoric, studj^ of, in Amer. acad., 
235, 238, 253; in Amer. coll., 
269; in Eng. acad, 171; in 
Amer. h. ss., 353, 417, 418, 
423. 

Rhode Island College. See Brown 
University. 

Rhode Island (Colony), foundation 
and early history of gr. ss., 48 ; 
School System, 101. 

Rhode Island (State), School System, 
200, 224, 496, 497. 

Rich's Shorthand, used in North- 
.ampton (Eng.) Acad., 170. 

Ritwyse, John, master of St. Paul's 
School (London, Eng.), 16. 

Rochester, N. Y., Manual Labor 
School, 337. 

Rock Spring (111.) Seminary, 222. 

Rogers, Col. Sumner, founder of 
Michigan Military Acad., 397. 

Rollin's Ancient History, in Franklin's 
Sketch, 189. 



Roman Catholic schools, hibliog- 
raphy, 344, 414 ; colleges, 326, 
327, 328, 329, 330; girls' con- 
vent ss., 255, 323, 326, 327, 329, 
330; parochial ss , 323, 399; 
secondary ss., 324, 399, 451 ; 
theol. ss., 256, 323, 324, 326, 327. 

Round Hill S., Northampton, Mass., 
foundation, 339 ; 395, 510. 

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, educational 
theory, 205, 229, 335, 342. 

Rowe, Thomas, master of acad. at 
Newington, Eng., 165, 173. 

Roxbury (Mass.), 124, 125, 511 ; Gr. 
S., control, 148 ; foundation, 
1645, 40; incorporated, 242; 
state in 1681, 142. 

Rush, (Dr.) Benjamin, founder of 
girls' school, Philadelphia, 253 ; 
pupil at acad. at Nottingham, 
Md., 100. 

Rush, Jacob, founds girls' school, 
Philadelphia, 253. 

Rutgers College, New Brunswick, 
N. J., 96, 147. 

Rutgers College Gr. S., 201. 

Sacred Heart, Sisters of, their 
acad. at Manhattan ville, 329. 

St. James College, Hagerstown, Md., 
395. 

St. John, Henry (Viscount Boling- 
broke), pupil of John Wood- 
house, Sheriff hales, Eng., 163. 

St. John's College, Annapolis, (Md.), 
218, 511. 

St. Josepli's College, Bardstown, Ky., 
foundation, 327. 

St. Joseph's Seminary, Bardstown^ 
Ky., foundation, 327. 

St. Louis, Mo., Higli School, 313, 
511 ; Manual Training S., 401. 

St. Mark's School, Southborough, 
Mass., 396, 511 ; course of study, 
1901-1902, 476-479. 

St. Mary's Acad., New York City, 
foundation, 327. 

St. Mary's College, Baltimore, Md., 
foundation, 326. 



INDEX 



543 



St. Paul's College, Flushing, L. I., 
394, 512. 

St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H., 
foundation, 395-396, 512. 

St. Paul's School (Loudon, Eng.), 
110, 307; bibliography, 28-29; 
course of study, 14 ; foundation, 
12; rules for admission, 13; 
masters, 16. 

Salaries of schoolmasters, colonial, 
123-125 ; h. s., 301. 

Salem, Mass., Gr. S., foundation, 38. 

Sallust, read in acad., 237, 277 ; in 
colleges (colonial), 33. 

San Francisco, Cal., California School 
of Mechanical Arts, 402 ; h. s., 
313, 512; Lowell H. S., course 
of study, 1901, 480. 

Sanderson, Nicholas, pupil of John 
Frankland at Rathmill, Eng., 
162. 

School administration, colonial, 128 f., 
147, 152, 279, 280. 

School buildings, colonial, 140 f., 
270. 

School hours, Boston Latin S., 1773, 
132; Dorchester, Mass., 1645, 
136; Hopkins Gr. S., New 
Haven, 1684, 137 ; Leicester 
Acad., 245 ; Phillips Andover, 
1780, 261. 

School lands granted by U. S., given 
to states, 215, 219; 288-289. 

Schoolmasters, colonial, 108 f. 

School Sisters of Notre Dame, found 
College of Notre Dame of Mar}'- 
land, 329. 

School systems, American (colonial), 
60 f., 65, see also names of states ; 
England, 16th century, 60; Ger- 
man, 17th centurv, 66 ; Holland, 
17th century, 66 f. n. ; Scotland, 
17th century, 67 f. u. 

Schwenckfelders, High School of, in 
Montgomery Co. and Berks Co., 
Pa., 303. 

Sciences, natural, study of, in acad- 
emies, 232 ; in colleges, 248 ; in 
secondary ss., general, 416-419. 



See also, Astronomy ; Biology ; 
Botany ; Chemistry ; Physics. 

Scotch influence on ^ec. education in 
America, 272, 305-306; educa- 
tional system, bibliography, 77- 
78. 

Scotch-Irish immigration, in South, 
85 ; New Hampshire, 91 ; Vir- 
ginia, 100. 

Seeker, Thomas (Archbishop of Can- 
terbury), pupil of Sam. Jones at 
Gloucester, 167. 

Secondary schools, defined, 1 f. ; 
statistics of, for 1899-1900, see 
Appendix A, 467-472. 

Secret societies in sec. ss., 244. 

"Self-government" in h. ss., 431-432. 

Seneca, in Milton's proposed cur- 
riculum, 158. 

Sergeantville, N. J., Mantua Manual 
Labor Institute, 337. 

Seton (Mrs.), organized American 
Society of Sisters of Charity, 
327. 

Sewall (Judge), Diary, quoted, 113, 
176. 

Shattuck, (Dr.) George Cheyne, 
founder St. Paul'.s S., Concord, 
N. H., 395. 

Shattuck School, Faribault, Minn., 
397. 

Shepard, J. J., prin. H. S. of Com- 
merce, New York City, 405. 

" Shepherd's Tent," New London, 
Conn., 92. 

Sliurtleff College, Rock Spring, 111., 
222. 

Sill, Edward Rowland, teacher in 
h. s., Oakland, Cal., 423 f. n. 

Sims, Wm G., 247. 

Sisters of Charity, American Society, 
schools, 327. 

Slater, VVm. A., benefactor of Nor- 
wich, Conn., Free Acad., 315. 

Smith, Gen. Francis H., head of 
Virginia Military Institute, 334. 

Smith, (Rev.) Wm., master I'hilo- 
sopliical School, and Provost 
Public Acad., Philadelphia, 184. 



544 



INDEX 



Social distinctions, colonial, 107, 228, 
347. 

Social organizations in ss., 432. 

Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, 81 f., 
96, 103, 105. 

Solinus, in Milton's proposed curric- 
nlnm, 158. 

SoUers, Basil, quoted, 100. 

Somersworth, N. II., II. S , fonnda- 
tion, 354. 

Song schools (England), 17th century, 
19. 

Soule, Gideon Lane, prin. Phillips 
Exeter Acad., 260-261. 

Southborough, Mass., St. Mark's S., 
396. 

South Carolina (Colony) School Sys- 
tem, 96 f. 

South Carolina (State) School Sys- 
tem, 202, 225, 491, 493, 494, 495. 

South Carolina College, foundation, 
292. 

South Carolina Military Academy, 
Columbia and Charlestown, foun- 
dation, 334, 512. 

Spanish language, study of, author- 
ized in California h. ss., 355 ; 
in Frajiklin's Proposals, 182 ; in 
Girard College, 345. 

Spelling in h. ss, 307. 

Sports of school children, colonial, 
138, 139, 180; in academies, 
245, 396, 433, 450 ; in h. ss., 432, 
434, 435. 

Springfield, N. J., Gr. S., 201. 

State control of schools, 143, 151, 
204, 293 ; chapters X., XIII., and 
XVI., passim. See also the 
names of states. 

State control of universities and col- 
leges, 281-283, 284, 291. 

State control of industrial corpora- 
tions, 293. 

State inspection of sec. ss, 367, 374, 
377, 378. 

State support of sec. ss., Acad. : 
Mass., 217, 224, 242; Kentucky, 
220; Maryland, 218, 225; Michi- 



gan, 214; Penn., 218; Tenn., 
219; Indiana, 220; Illinois, 221, 
222 ; New York (h. ss. and acad- 
emies), 224, 362, 363. High 
Schools: Conn., 352; Minn., 
366, 367 ; Wisconsin, 365 ; of 
universities, 281, 288, 291, 370. 

State systems of education, see chap- 
ters X. and XVI. ; see also names 
of individual states. 

State universities, growth, 370 ; 
origin, 280, 291, 292. See also 
names of states. 

Stiles, Ezra, pres. Yale College, 
Literal- jj Diari/, quoted, 115. 

Story, (Justice) Joseph, opinion in 
Girard Will Case, 344. 

Stowe, Calvin E., report on German 
schools 338. 

Student organizations, 244, 432-433, 
450. 

Student publications, 434. 

Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church, 
near Charlotte, N. C, Classical 
S., foundation c 1766, 99. 

Sulpitians, order of, seminary at 
Baltimore, 326 ; St. Mary's Col- 
lege, 326. 

Surveying, study of, in acad., 233, 
238; in colonial gr. ss., 134; in 
h. ss., 301, 3.53, 354. 

Swift, Jonathan, in Franklin's Sketch, 
189. 

Syms, Benjamin, founder of gr. s. at 
Elizabeth City and Kiquotion, 
49, 149. 

Syms' Free School, Va., 99 ; corpora- 
tion, 149. 

Tallahassee, Fla., West Florida 
Seminary, 223. 

Talleyrand, 210 f. n. 

Tappan, Henry P., pres. University 
of Michigan, definition of a 
university, 351 f. n. ; imitated 
German university organization, 
338 ; on relation of univ. to sec. 
f-s., 377 ; report to Regents, 1856, 
quoted, 350. 



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